Modern knight in armor riding horse from Oklahoma to Galveston for charity

Bill Underwood of Galveston, a member of the Knights of the Lone Star, is wearing armor as he rides his horse from the Oklahoma border to Galveston as a fundraiser for SIRE, a therapeutic horsemanship provider. Bill Underwood of Galveston, a member of the Knights of the Lone Star, is wearing armor as he rides his horse from the Oklahoma border to Galveston as a fundraiser for SIRE, a therapeutic horsemanship provider. Photo: Courtesy Of Bill Underwood Photo: Courtesy Of Bill Underwood Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Modern knight in armor riding horse from Oklahoma to Galveston for charity 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

There's a reason that King Arthur and his knights clanked around in a cool climate.

Despite the Texas heat, however, a Galveston man in a suit of armor is riding a horse from the Oklahoma border back to his home city, for a good cause.

Bill Underwood, 62, is out on the trail to raise funds and awareness for SIRE, an organization that provides therapeutic horseback riding lessons to clients with special needs.

"I couldn't do what they do," Underwood said of the organization, which has centers in Hockley, Spring and Fort Bend County.

He's making the ride as a representative of Knights of the Lone Star, an organization he started as a way to do some good.

The project is attracting a lot of attention, he said.

"In Texas, if you see a guy riding down the road in a cowboy hat and boots you don't think much of it," he said. "But when you're wearing a suit of armor, everybody wants to know what's going on, whether you escaped from Ren Fest, or what have you."

At least 100 times a day, somebody wants to have a photo taken with him, he said.

Using vacation time from his job as a field technician for General Electric, Underwood is traveling with three horses, two sets of armor, a trailer and a driver -- his son, Matt Eastwood.

The unusual expedition departed Sept. 2 from the north Texas town of Lindsay, where Mayor Don Metzler "knighted" Underwood before he undertook the 365-mile journey.

"He did it as a favor," Underwood said of Metzler's symbolic action. "I kind of felt like some official needed to send us on that quest. He was very generous and met us there in the park."

The mayor happened to mention that the town's school mascot is the Knights, so Underwood suited up in his plate armor and rode around the school on his horse.

"It took some of them a few seconds to realize that what they were seeing was real," he said cheerfully, talking on his cell phone Wednesday from atop his horse as he approached Rosenberg.

Averaging about 40 miles a day, Underwood said he plans to finish the trip Saturday afternoon and will do an official hoof dip Sunday morning in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thursday morning, he said he hoped to be near Manvel, going down Texas 6 toward Hitchcock.

His fundraising goal?

"It's everything we can get," he said. "We really didn't set a goal. For one thing, I hate disappointment. Whatever there is to hand over (to SIRE), then that's what it is."