Heber City Horse Man returns home after long journey
Dec 5, 2024, 6:45 PM | Updated: 10:51 pm
HEBER CITY — It’s not uncommon to see people still riding horses along the side of the road in Utah. However, there is a good chance other riders don’t have the story Jake Harvath now has.
“It is my dream and we made it happen,” Harvath said with a smile.
That dream was a 6000-mile journey across the country, through twenty-five states, on horseback.
With a police officer escort down Main Street, Harvath returned home to Heber City Thursday afternoon after finishing his dream.
He has been gone for more than a year.
“It doesn’t feel real that I am here right now after all this time. I couldn’t ask for anything better. It has been an amazing journey,” Harvath said.
Harvath called his trip “The Year of the Mustang.” The whole idea of it all was to raise awareness that mustangs and wild horses can still matter in modern America.
“I think they really did show the entire world that wild horses still got a place, at least for horsemen and that really could be incredible partners,” Harvath said about his three horses.
Harvath took turns riding Bella, Eddy, and Denver on his trip.
They went through snow, the great plains of middle America, and even New York City, which is known more for its car traffic than horse riding.
“I have not only been kind of people’s first experience with mustangs all over the country, but I have also been able to be people’s first experiences with horses all over the country,” Harvath said.
He documented his trip the whole time on his YouTube channel and other social media pages, hoping to inspire others to do tough things.
“Nelson Mandela said it always looks impossible until it’s done,” Harvath said in one of his videos.
His mother wasn’t so sure it was possible at first, but she knew her son was dedicated to doing and completing the trip.
She was in Heber taking pictures of his return.
“I heard a saying once that behind every great kid is a mother who thinks she’s screwing it up,” Leah Harvath said with tears in her eyes. “And in this moment, maybe I didn’t screw it up.”
Now that he is home and ready for a nice break, he feels the real work is just beginning.
“I am going to keep on making videos to keep on spreading the word about wild horses and the West and everything I can to keep it going,” he said.
