A DEPUTY stable manager is in training to undertake an epic six month 2,000 mile horseback trek across America.

Lisa Waller, 23, will follow the cowboy routes of the 1860s and 70s from 145 miles west of Dallas, Texas to Montana as part of a team of five.

Miss Waller of Mote End Farm, Mill Hill, said the trip was something she had always dreamed of.

“I always thought what an amazing experience it would be to ride across America,” she said.

“I'm really nervous, but I'm really really excited too. We don't know what we'll come across. It will be really back to basics and I'm sure after a month we'll be craving chocolate and a proper toilet.”

Miss Waller is leaving her job and spending her life savings to undertake the trek, but said it was too great an opportunity to pass up.

The leader of the expedition, called The Long Ride 2010, James Locke, said he was delighted she was on board.

He initially recruited Miss Waller for a two-week period only, but during a trial Canadian canoe expedition to the forests of Sweden, decided she had “more to offer”.

“I was impressed by her strength of character and willingness to learn,” he said.

Because of her skills with horses and experience gained in running a stable, Mr Locke has now signed her up as a horse wrangler and she will be riding the entire route.

The five riders leave from Fort Belknap, Texas, the start point of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, and head west and south west to the southern New Mexico border.

They will then turn north, travelling up through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and into Montana, where the ride will terminate at the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Mr Locke said the expedition was inspired by cowboy films such as Rawhide.

The route will range over a varied terrain, inducing mountains, desert, scrub and grasslands and the riders will likely experience all kinds of weather from torrential rain to drought, dust storms, hail storms and lightning.

Although they will use modern equipment, the riders will live like their 19th century predecessors did, camping out in the open and sourcing food from the local environment as much as possible.

Mr Locke said there would be a lot of beans to eat and the participants would fish and hunt rabbits and snakes for food.

But he said he hoped people would use the trip as an opportunity to learn about native foods and cooking.