This is Surrey --THE rolling Surrey Hills provided a welcome stop-off for a pair of genuine American cowgirls on a 1,500-mile horse ride.
Karen Hardy and her daughter Olivia Schwiebert stayed in Abinger Common as they neared the end of a five-month voyage from Italy to Wiltshire.
The duo, who live on a ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico, planned the ride to raise awareness of the bad treatment horses receive in modern society, staying with members of the horse-owning community they met along the way.
Ms Hardy, 45, said Sheila Morgan had made them feel extremely welcome at her Sariah Arabian Homestead in Broadmoor for the night of July 7.
She told the Advertiser: "We started riding in Milan on February 4 with three horses we had bought from the slaughter auction in Lombardia.
"We put them in a truck and drove them over the San Bernardino Pass into Switzerland but other than that and crossing the English Channel on the train they have walked the whole way.
"We get passed from barn to barn and people call ahead to their friends and say 'The cowgirls are coming'.
"We've stayed in 120 or 130 different places with no advance planning – we just hoped people would take us in. We've always found a place to stay, and people have always given us the best they have."
Ms Hardy and her 17-year-old daughter have passed through Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and France on their way to the chalk hill figure known as the Uffington White Horse.
She explained: "We're trying to start a conversation about what's going on in the horse world; why we have 200,000 horses in Europe and the same number in the US going to slaughter every year.
"Our society wouldn't be what it is without them, but now they have become disposable. A fashion item.
"The most important thing to us is that we have taken horses that people said were worthless and we've shown the world that these horses have value.
"Hopefully, we have inspired people to think twice about where their horses go."
She added: "Riding across Europe through the coldest winter in recent years has been a big adventure.
"We're nearly at our destination now, which is fantastic."
They were due to complete their journey on Tuesday this week. Money raised through sponsorship and the sale of the three horses will be donated to animal charity the Blue Cross.
To read more about the trek, visit http://journeyeurope.us or www.facebook.com/ JourneyEurope Reported by This is 14 hours ago.