How to Ride From Van Horn to Blackwater in Less Than 17 Minutes Without Touching Any Water for Horseman Challenge 9 - Red Dead Redemption 2 Guide - IGN (2024)

This page takes you through how to Ride From Van Horn to Blackwater in Less Than 17 Minutes Without Touching Any Water for the ninth of the Horseman Challenges in Red Dead Redemption 2.

As Blackwater is your end destination you may not want to try this until you're a bit later into the game.

As with all of these race challenges get yourself a fast horse breed. Don't waste time with war horses that might be slow, you want something with a bit of zip. You are also going to need stamina and ideally, this challenge is attempted with a horse you have a strong bond with for best results.

Feed the horse first and make sure all the cores are full. Have some extra food on you in case you need to refuel on the way as well and make sure they're clean for your top speed.

The hardest part about this run is that you can't touch water, so starting from the signpost in Van Horn, head west along the road. This is so you can cross the river in between the E and the R on your map.

Stick now stick to the path all the way to Emerald Station (it may be worth setting a waypoint at now to show you the way). Once you're at Emerald station we're going to change to using train tracks for this portion of the journey.

It may seem counter-intuitive but follow the track north for a bit - you want to follow it to Valentine and then down to Riggs Station.

Here we transfer back to the path and ride south so we can cross this river safely, then head further out west and out past Strawberry to cross at Owanjila Damn.

From here you can set your waypoint on Blackwater and ride it on in but if you still have a high bounty you could easily run into bandit trouble so be careful.

Method in the Epilogue

If you have the patience, this challenge gets significantly easier in the epilogue. As well, your starting horse in the epilogue is more than sufficient performance-wise, and when executed correctly, should offer minutes of margin. There are multiple valid routes and ways to achieve this challenge.

You can rest up at the hotel in Van Horn for yourself if you like, but it's not required.

A marked up version of the game map with a recommended route is shown below, along with a writeup on numbered segments in greater detail. When executed smoothly with the starting horse in the epilogue, you should have a few minutes to spare following this route.

1. Set your marker for the railroad bridge over the Kamassa River (end of this segment), and head south out of Van Horn, following the path west.
2. Ride over the rail bridge until you reach the end, then take the leftmost path at the intersection. You will ride noticeably slower on the railroad tracks themselves.
3. Taking the leftmost path, you will round a sharp peak and be heading out of Roanoke Ridge. You can pause the game and pretty much set a marker for Bard's Crossing (the pause menu does not affect the timer), you will follow this for awhile, past Emerald Station, and through Twin Stack Pass. The route is fairly direct but over flat terrain it's easy to cut corners here and there to save time.
4. As this route will take you over the Bard's Crossing rail bridge, switch to ride alongside the railroad tracks after you pass Twin Stack Pass, near where the Chapter 2 camp was (the map paths will take you downhill toward the river here, and should be ignored for now). Ride through Flatneck Station, and keep an eye out for trains, which may momentarily block your path over the bridge.
5. At Bard's Crossing, it's possible you will have a train here (if so it's okay you should still have plenty of time). Wait until it passes, then ride over the rail bridge, then along the railway until you hit Riggs Station. Turn left towards Strawberry. Set a marker for Owanjila Dam here, and you can follow the path through Strawberry until roughly about the dam.
6. Ride to Strawberry and zip through the city (hopefully there are no strangers or random encounters to slow you down momentarily) and head for the dam. There is a very likely Laramie robbery that can happen just before you round the corner to the dam, but you can quickly deal with these three in deadeye and be on your way.
7. Ride across the dam and up through the northern reaches of Tall Trees. Set a marker east of the intersection east of the 'A' in Tall Trees. The paths are narrow, and this section contains some switchbacks, but these can be taken somewhat quickly. This is also prime Skinner Brothers ambush territory (whose ambushes here often involve 6+ enemies) so prior exploration through this section is very worthwhile. It may seem like there are good opportunities for shortcuts around curves, but you have enough margin, you should wait until you're out of the mountains.
8. At your marker, you have great opportunity to cut through some trees and shave off from the main path. Once you're out of the trees, it's a straight shot to Blackwater. Set a marker for the center of Blackwater and you can pretty much follow the paths past Beecher's Hope into town. The challenge should fire by the time you start to pass between some houses on the outskirts of Blackwater.

With the tips and route above, you should have a few minutes to spare, so an ambush or slowdown here or there shouldn't kill your run.