[jester]

Of course some would make the shift, but how? The areas I am thinking are a hundred plus miles away from most urban centers. That is a hell of a hump for a trained infantryman who is supplied. How hard would it be for an untrained, unconditioned unsupplied half starving civilian who really has no idea what to bring, or exactly where he is going? Not to mention their having to travel through several communities that most likely will be less than freindly to them. Remember, most horse people have gun and can use them quite well especialy in the defense of their anmals and family.

Think, comming after a farmers stock is an attack on his livelyhood and family. As a result, I can see several communities turning out with guns in hand telling the masses of refugees to turn around and go back where they came from, or to just keep on moving and don't even look back.

As for other areas, well who was it who posted a picture of the desert and many of us here in the states said it looked like areas we live in. There are alot of desert and badlands in areas where horses are still used as working animals and alot of distance. I know in my area, the Interstate 15 would be littered with bones of the dead until you hit the top of the Cajone <Ka-hone> pass, and when they hit the top of that steep grade they will be in the high desert. In the winter it snows at the top of the pass and in the summer 110 is not unusual. I know the Mojave River flows above ground in a few places forming several oasises, but they are about an hour of drive time which is about 60 miles.

As I said, alot of it is terrain and climate that will save alot of the animals. And the wild horses and burros in the South West, try to find them, you can see them at distance in California and Arizona and Nevada but again they are in the middle of nowhere in the desert again. Death Valley has a nice population as well but they don't call it Death Valley for nothing.

Alot of the U.S. is sparsely populated with small towns far from urban population centers, and it is these towns that alot of the farming and ranching takes place.