For a gaited horse , she ’ s also built well to dissipate heat . She ’ s got a deep heartgirth and a radiator-shaped body . She ’ s also got a long , easy stride and a 8 mph running walk . I can do entire 50s at a running walk and she ’ ll come in off the trail like she hasn ’ t done a thing . She has learned to eat and drink better ; this did not come until I started doing multi-day rides on her .
The most important aspects in a successful endurance horse is that they love their job , they are physically and mentally built to handle the work and they and rider find mutual enjoyment of their time together .
Is this the first time you ’ ve ridden in the Tevis Cup ?
I started Tevis last year ( 2016 ). To be honest , the horse wasn ’ t as prepared as she could have been . I selfpulled Sky at Deadwood ( 55 miles in ) for fatigue . A rider option pull is when the vet passes the horse , and the rider decides they are done . I knew it wasn ’ t our day ; I could have probably squeaked through the next two canyons , but I wanted to finish on a happy , healthy horse and she was tired .
That next year , I really worked and put the time in . Sky did two multi-day rides in the winter ( 150 miles in 3 days and 200 miles in 4 days ); the 20 Mule Team 100 in February , two more multi-day rides in the spring and a lot of heat conditioning in June . We rode the canyons in July and then she got about a month of complete rest to roam the pasture and fatten up . Meanwhile , I worked on my fitness and was able to run down and tail up 2 canyons on ride day . It all worked and we had a great , successful ride in 2017 .
Do you have plans to ride it again ?
If it ’ s in the cards , absolutely . It ’ s not everyday that a Tevis horse comes into your life . I want to ride this train as long as I can !
Where did you place ?
We came in with the huge pack of horses from 4:30 to 5:00 am . Due to the tight cut-off times at Tevis , almost 2 / 3 of the riders will finish in the last hour . Tevis is the ride which truly exemplifies the AERC motto of “ to finish is to win .’
Are there any anecdotes or personal stories that you ’ d like to share about your Tevis Cup experience ( s )?
This year ’ s Tevis Cup was a special one for me . We had 7 gaited riders enter ; all friends of mine and 4 finished ! 4 finishing gaited horses is the record at Tevis , and it was a harder-than-normal year because of the route change due to snow in the high Sierras . We started at Soda Springs instead of Robie Park and to make up mileage we used Duncan Canyon which was the original route of the Western States Trail . It was highly technical and took much longer than normal . We were blessed with some cooler temps due to the Sierra thun-
22 • Walking On