John Wayne Haynes rode into Santa Fe late Thursday, six months and three weeks after he left his home in Michigan.

The 55-year-old former butcher rode all the way on his 3-year-old saddle horse, an Appaloosa named Misty, camping out most nights with gear carried by a 24-year-old pack horse named Harley, another Appaloosa.

"It was always just something I wanted to do," he said of his 2,000-mile horseback journey through Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.

Haynes was accompanied by a 4-year-old border collie/blue heeler mix named Sheila and a 4-month-old red heeler named Rudy that was given to him in Arkansas.

The sun was shining and temperatures were balmy on Oct. 2 when he left Hudson, Mich., about 75 miles north of the Ohio state line. The heaviest snows he encountered were in Kentucky and Tennessee during November.

The laconic, bearded, 19-century-looking horseman has done farrier work along the way and already has drawn the attention of several newspapers, bloggers, photographers and songwriters. He said his parents named him for the actor John Wayne, whose photo was kept in his bedroom.

Haynes said most people he has met along the way have treated him kindly. But he recalled an Ohio dairy farmer who refused him even a drink of water and an Arkansas man who sicced his pit bulls on him.

He crossed into New Mexico from Texas on April 6. The first New Mexico town he reached was the tiny village of Sedan. Haynes made 20 to 25 miles a day, following smaller state roads and avoiding the interstates whenever possible. The most desolate stretch, he said, was N.M. 419 between Mosquero and Trementina.

"When I hit 419, I mean there were cattle guards across the road and it was even dirt for 12 to 15 miles," he said. "My little puppy was just running loose because I wasn't worried about any cars."

On Monday, Haynes reached Las Vegas, N.M., where friends of friends put him and his animals up on a nearby farm. He spent Wednesday night camped alongside the I-25 frontage road east of Rowe. By 2:30 p.m. Thursday, he was at Glorieta with hopes of reaching Santa Fe by nightfall.

Haynes worked for years as a butcher for a Bob Evans sausage plant in Michigan, but he said he's not sure what he'll do in Santa Fe, where his brother, Scott Haynes, runs an automobile repair shop on Calle de Comerico, off Siler Road.

"That's a good question," he said. "I'm going to try to find some ranch work close to the area."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.