The Long Rider: Hoofing It Into the History Books for 13,000 kms

By Jim Slotek

Rating: B-plus

“Long riding,” any trip on horseback of more than 1,600 km, is unique among equestrian sports. There is no competition. You succeed in finishing the trip or you don’t. It’s more in line with the mountain climber’s “because it’s there” challenge.

Sean Cisterna’s evocative documentary The Long Rider chronicles perhaps the most remarkable long ride in recent years. Starting with two, and eventually three horses, Brazilian-born Filipe Masetti Leite traveled 13,000 km through six countries from his Calgary home to his parents’ ranch in Brazil. At a deliberate pace of 3 km/hour, the trip took more than two years, making Leite the youngest person to cross the Americas on horseback.

Filipe Masetti Leite and traveling companions stick to the shoulder en route to Brazil.

The obstacles, loneliness and desperate setbacks on route underscore both the questionable sanity of the journey and the reason why long riding is considered a dying art. (Leite’s own journey was inspired by a book, Tschiffely's Ride, about Aimé Tschiffely's trek from Argentina to New York in 1925).

In many ways, The Long Rider evokes Far: The Story of a Journey Around the World, a 2019 documentary about a young German couple who decided, some might say foolheartedly, to circumnavigate the planet, mainly by hitchhiking. In both sagas, the success of the challenge hinges in no small way on both luck and the kindness of strangers. And border crossings are the enemy. (Three months of Leite’s trip were spent in legal limbo in Panama).

Leite’s good Samaritans were horse people, in some cases Indigenous ones. Injured horses were cared for and replacements lent out with trust as collateral. There were harrowing moments, parched marches through bone-dry countryside, and sketchy “saviors,” particularly in narco-towns south of the U.S. border. In one small town, we hear gunshots punctuate an argument between the hotel owner and his wife.

The filming is almost all done by Leite alone. He is briefly joined by his father, mother and then-girlfriend in separate visits. And at one point in Latin America, he becomes a media sensation, joined by as many as a thousand fellow riders.

For all that, The Long Rider is not a will-he-be-able-to-do-it affair. The movie opens at the celebratory end, making it literally about the journey rather than the destination.

It’s not often these days that I complain about a movie not being long enough, but 95 minutes is a tight frame for a two-year story.

A lot is alluded to. Break-ups, a feeling of emptiness that accompanied the end of the journey, a post-trek battle with the bottle, new relationships, subsequent long rides.

The Long Rider has enough narrative (there were more than 500 hours of footage), that it could have been a doc series. The filmmakers are in talks to spin off Leite’s story into a dramatic film.

As it stands, The Long Rider is a film experience that reminds us of the lure of solitude, of slowly traveling in the most rudimentary way, dependant on the bonds between human and horse. It’s a look back at a lost way of life, and a testament to accomplishing the near-impossible.

The Long Rider. Directed by Sean Cisterna. Starring Filipe Masetti Leite, Luis Leite, Emma Brazier. Opens Friday, June 24 in Toronto, Friday, July 1 in Calgary, and across Canada on Friday, July 8. The Long Rider will be streamed later on Super Channel and Amazon Prime Canada.