After thinking about all the great horses I have been able to ride in Endurance rides, I thought I’d share a little background on each of them.   If only a lot of them were mine!

 

 

Rowan

 

Rowie is my first horse, and the one that will always mean the most to me.   I got him when he was 15 years young.  He was a seasoned trail horse that had done a few endurance rides, mostly 25s and two or three 50s.   He and I learned how to ride together and spent many, many wonderful hours on the trail.  I only fell off of him once, when we were cantering around a blind turn.  (Yeah, I know, but hey, I was a rank beginner!)  A herd of cattle was standing on the road, in the turn, and Rowie just jumped off the trail to avoid creaming them.  I fell off and landed in the grass.  I stood up and called him- he stopped running, snorted, and came trotting back up to me.  We went on many club campouts together, including Yosemite a few times.  My first endurance ride was on Rowan- a fifty at Mount Diablo.  We finished, with him in much better shape than me.  We then did the Oakland hills, Fireworks, and Las Trampas together, but were pulled after a bad step in a Shine and Shine only 50 in San Jose.  That was the last endurance ride Rowan got to do.   He is 27 now, still living at home, still full of fun and vigor.  We go on easy rides and walks now, but most of his time is spent out in the paddocks or on the hill with his friends.  He’s the reason I’m in this sport, and to him, I’ll forever be grateful.   Horse rating- infinity.  There is no rating high enough for Rowan.

 

UPDATE 5/06-  Rowan is 302 now and still hanging around with his friends.  No more riding, but he still pulls me around on the lead rope when we go for walks.  He eats all the Equine Senior he can, and lives in his own pasture, since the other horses would surely mow him down for his tasty food.  I hope he stays with us for many more years.

 

Centur

 

Centur is an older Arabian gentleman, owned by my good friend and endurance mentor Marilyn R. Russell, from Livermore.   Marilyn’s expert guidance helped Judy and I get into the sport, saving us untold hours of frustration we would have otherwise gone through.   Marilyn has over 8000 endurance miles and has 6 or 7 Tevis completions.  I hold her highly responsible for the success of my first Tevis ride, where she helped me with a detailed time schedule of where to be when, and how to get through the ride.   Centur is her old reliable horse that has over 5000 miles.  In fact, I think I was on his back when he went over the 5K mark.    Marilyn let me ride him in a five or six 50 mile rides after I had to retire Rowan, since she was bringing along her new baby, Cresta, and I didn’t have a horse.   I got to ride Centur along with Marilyn when she rode Cresta in her first 50 mile ride.  He’s a great horse, very solid and reliable, and he certainly knows his job.  He has this great habit where he stops at the top of a downhill, turns to look at his rider, asking if they want to get off and walk down the hill.  He used to really make me laugh when he did that. My most memorable moment was during my first ride on him called the Los Vaqueros 50.  The ride went out from camp three times on the same trail: 25 mile loop, 20 mile loop, then a final 5 mile loop.  He went out okay on the first, was sluggish on the second, and on the third, I thought I was going to have to drag him out there.   We were heading away from camp, climbing up a long, easy hill, when he just about refused to go on.  I didn’t know what to do, being inexperienced.   I looked him over carefully for signs of a problem, but found a low heart rate and respiration, no lameness, he was drinking and eating happily, I just had to drag him up the hill.  I was sure I’d hurt the horse and was going to turn back, except that I knew it was shorter to finish the loop.  I led him on foot, just dragging him up that hill.  We got to the top, turned left, and what do you know, he’s on fire!  He just sailed home at a great trot and canter.  We got to the finish where he was at 48 for the vet, happy, eating, and prancing about.   I told Marilyn about my scare- she laughed and told me that Centur “just had my number.”   He was testing me, and won, since I didn’t know any better.  She taught me how to tell the difference between a horse that was smart, and one that was in trouble.   Thanks Marilyn, for all you taught me and did for us.  Horse rating- 7.  Great horse, taught me a lot.

 

Sqoundrel

 

I leased this horse from a friend in our riding club for a few months while shopping for a new horse, but had some interesting experiences.   I learned to ride on my wonderful old gentleman Rowan, who was perfect in every way.  Not SQ.  This horse was a big, strong, Arabian gelding that was good on trails, except when he spooked.  And man, could he spook.   It was not the spooking, actually, but the dipped shoulder and runaway that followed each spook.  The first time he did it, I just plain fell off and watched him run away, back towards the barn.  Man, that was bad.   He did it to me again, and again, but after the third or fourth time, I began learning how to read the behavior, and I was mostly able to stop him from bolting by just dragging his head around before he took off.  I actually was able to stop him once while he was running away, but it was hard.  I was conditioning him for his first endurance ride when I entered him in a club sponsored Trail Trials event at Sunol.  He was great until the jacket pickup obstacle, where he spooked, took off, and ran down the mountain, fast.  (see story about why I wear a helmet)  As a result, I got my first emergency hospital trip in my life.   Ouch, that hurt.   I never did get to enter him in a ride, since his owner took him back.  I wasn’t too disappointed, since I had some bad times on him.  He tossed Judy into a fence once as well when he spooked and took off.  He’s a nice horse, but I’m glad I didn’t own him.   Horse Rating- 3. 

 

 

Shatta

 

Shatta was my second horse, and my first young one.   I looked for over a year before I bought him from a great old endurance rider and marathon runner from Aroyo Grande named Bob Edwards.   Bob’s a real character- he’s over 70 and still out there, riding and doing things like championship ride and ties.  He sold Me Shatta in 1996 when I convinced him I’d give the horse a great home.   The horse is a magnificent looking animal- a big, strong, beautiful chestnut with 4 white stockings and a blaze on his nose.  He was very green when I got him, so I had Donna Snyder Smith help me with his basic training and manners.  Shatta was one of those really high-headed /hollow backed horses on the trail, so we worked on that diligently.  He also spooked a lot, but he wouldn’t go anywhere, he would just do these big leaps sideways.  I always said it was like riding a big spring.  Lucky for me, he got better about spooking as he got older, but would still do it more often than I liked.  I came off twice in our time together, neither being anything serious.   My favorite spook was at a shine and shine 50, where he spooked a hundred feet from the finish line.  The saddle was loose and slipped down.   I fell off and grabbed his neck, holding on for dear life.  I ended up under his neck, my arms around his neck holding me up off the ground, with my feet stuck in the stirrups, while the saddle was on his side.   Could have been very ugly.  I just asked him to ho, which he did instantly.  He stood there while I let go and dropped to the ground.  What a good boy.  Shatta injured his suspensory ligament in his right leg during a twisting spook at day three of Death Valley, causing a 10-month recovery.  He recovered, and in 1998 he gave me the endurance year of my life to that point.  We did 700 miles, finished them all but one ride, with him getting stronger and stronger as he went.  We ended up in the top ten 4 times, by not even trying.  We got high vet score once; he did his first three 100’s with ease, including Tevis.  Donna Snyder Smith thought he had as much potential as any horse she had ever seen, and began working with me to prepare him for the next level.  He had 1300 miles and was ready to get going.  But alas, he suffered another suspensory injury, this time high on his right front.  Donna’s theory, that I tend to agree with, is that Shatta’s incredibly big, high, flowing trotting motion was just too much to sustain over the miles.  He would reach way out, and had a lot of big, up and down movement in his amazing, ground covering trot.  It felt like nothing else, but it was probably causing stress he couldn’t handle.  While recovering again, he developed a terrible case of arthritis and degenerative joint disease that we didn’t spot until it was too late.  The year off took its toll and although he recovered from the second suspensory, it turns out he lost half the range of motion in his left front fetlock, basically making him grade 4 lame forever.  The X-rays confirm it all- you could see the terrible progression of the degeneration.   The poor horse can do nothing now but go in big circles due to his joint not moving enough.  It was the most devastating thing I have ever dealt with, but there was nothing I could do but retire him in his prime, at the ripe old age of 12.  He’s now my second big pasture ornament, along with Rowan.  Yes, Shatta will be with me for as long as he lives.  He gave me the best he had and took my riding to another level.  He helped me discover about the relationship between a rider and the horse, how it grows, and how the confidence and trust keeps getting stronger. He made me a much better rider, and as a result I find spooking horses now just seem to be an annoyance.   If I had to list the biggest high in my career to date, it would be when Shatta cantered across the finish line at Tevis in 1998, finishing in about 40th place, just before 3:00 am.  I can close my eyes and remember how good it felt, and I’ll always have that.   Horse score- 10.

 

 

Zion

 

I leased Zion from Potato Richardson to do the Tevis in 1997, my first attempt at the ride.  Shatta was down with his injury, and I had an entry, and wanted to do it, so off we went.  Zion was about 10, I think, and had completed Tevis the two times he had started.  He was a really spunky little Arabian gelding that just loved to go, but really had no bad manners at all, except for flipping his head up.  I met and rode the horse for the first time the day before Tevis.  How wise that seemed was questionable, but in retrospect, it was perfect.  I started the ride and found Zion to be really wonderful.  He just liked to go, no fuss, no bother, no problems, and no spooking, I mean none, at all, not once, ever.  Boy, I liked that, after dealing with Shatta the giant spring.  We rode the incredible ride according to the schedule that Marilyn had set for us, that would get us to the finish at 4:00 am.  I ended up riding most of the ride, and everything from Michigan Bluff to the finish with my buddy Steph Teeter, and Leonard Liesens, from Belgium.  It was Leonard’s first 100 mile ride, he was riding Steph’s great horse Squeak.   We rode the ride like it was a big trail ride.  I had absolutely nothing go wrong throughout the whole day.   I think the worst thing that happened to me was I dropped my sandwich at White Oak Flat.  Zion and I led my two friends just about the whole way past Foresthill to the finish, where we finished about a minute after 4.   Steph was amazed and asked me how I knew where to stop for all the rocks we could not see.  Zion was doing it!  I was just along for the ride.  The perfect ride ended at the finish, where I was pulled for lameness.  That was fine, poor Zion had done something to himself between the quarry and the finish, only 6 miles or so.   He was okay, just grade three lame at the finish.  I didn’t really care- it was an amazing effort and it got me hooked on that ride forever.   Zion recovered quickly, and I think Potato sold him to someone back east.  He was, and hopefully still is, a really nice horse.  Horse rating- 8

 

 

Charlie

 

I have spent a lot of my time not riding due to not having a horse, or Shatta’s injuries.  Judy wanted to go to the Death Valley ride again, so I asked Jackie Bumgardner if she had a horse I could ride.  She put me together with a tough Arabian gelding that came from the mountains in Wyoming, or somewhere like that.   This little guy used to carry dead animals on his back on hunting trips, so there wasn’t much in the desert to scare him.  I rode three of the four days at Death Valley on him, having a splendid ride.  He was fun to ride- pretty strong, willing, no spooking at all, and easy to control.  I don’t remember any bad habits at all. He seemed kind of tired after the three days, so I got up around midnight to feed him and see how he was doing.  I took him for a little walk, but he was not real interested in trotting much, so I elected to not go on day 4.  I had three perfect days on him and didn’t want to take any chances.  He is now owned by Darolyn Butler’s husband (I think) and lives in Texas, where he is still doing rides.  I do have one memory with Charlie that I get to tell people around campfires.  I was on him on the infamous first time of the second day on the new Death Valley ride.   Jackie had not done the ride this way before, and it turned out to be really tough, and long.   We started in Trona, climbed up over the Paniment mountain range, through the tough rocks, then a long trot to lunch at 25 miles or so.  We then climbed up to the top of the world, the long and steep way, all the way to the top of Rogers pass, elevation 8000 feet or something.  It took a LONG time, since we had to walk just about the whole climb.  We got up into a lot of snow that was covering the exposed rocks.  It was a very difficult trail.  The way down was worse, since it was muddy, rocky, slippery, and since the sun was setting, it was starting to freeze up and turn to ice.  I led Charlie down the treacherous trail as the sun went down, really glad I wasn’t doing this in the dark. (a lot of people did)  Down from the horrible trail, it was now dark and I still had 8 miles to go.  I got off his back and we ran all the way down that mountain, through rocks, water, Ice, and the river at the bottom.  My feet were so frozen I could not feel them.  We got to the finish at 7:00 pm or so, in ninth place!  The winner got in at something like 5:30.  People were finishing all night, even up to midnight.  It was truly an incredible ride, spectacular in every way, and a true test of what endurance riding is.  Horse Rating- 8

 

Pecan

 

Pecan is a nice mare owned by Mike Maul.  I rode the first and only 25 mile ride I have ever done (still to this date in 06) on this horse at one of the Shine and Shine rides in San Jose.  This was also my first ride on a mare.  My riding buddy Sally was bringing her horse up and wanted to do a 25, so I asked the mail list if someone had a horse I could ride.  Mike offered Pecan, so I took him up and rode her.   It was a mostly uneventful ride, since she was a real nice horse that went great; I think I rode her in a halter type of thing.  No pulling, no problems.  She did not have the forward drive that I am used to, and she slowed way down on some of the climbs, but she went on happily and got me through just fine.  Horse Rating- 7

 

GT Orion

 

I had the shortest ride of my career on Orion, owned by Judy Ethridge.  Since I was looking for horses to ride, Judy offered me Orion for the Quicksilver 50 in San Jose.  I rode the horse at Sunol on a test ride and had a good ride.  Judy told me he had one bad habit to watch out for, he sometimes would stop on climbs and try and lay down.   He was fine on the test ride, but on the endurance ride, he pulled that on me after 1000 yards.  Whump!  Down he went, with me under him.  I was quite surprised, and got him up.  We went on again, and a minute later, Whump, down again.   Back up, forward a mile, and he starts to try it again. Okay, enough.  I value my legs, and this isn’t my horse.  I led him back to the start and ended the ride quick.  Horse Rating- unrated. (too short a ride!)

 

Fire Mountain Holly Go-lightly

 

The second Mare I ever rode in an endurance ride.   After my great experience with Charlie, Jackie B let me ride her own personal horse, Holly, in the 20 Mule Team 65.  I rode with my riding buddy Sally, and we had a superb ride.   Holly is a very go forward horse with nice manners, except for the drop the head to evade the bit thing.   She did that early in the ride a lot, but then stopped, after she figured out I wasn’t going to give her the bit.  She’s very powerful and has a great walk.  And that canter- wow.  We finished in the middle of the pack, just out to have a great time, which we did.  Holly never spooked once with me.    Great horse, and the first endurance Mare I’d own.  Horse Rating- 9

 

UPDATE- 5/04   I rode Holly on several more rides, including the 100 at the 20 Mule Team twice.   It is with the most sadness I can convey that we lost Holly two days after the 20 Mule Team ride in 2003 for an unknown reason.  She finished the ride perfectly with perfect everything; scores, attitude, everything.  On the second night after the ride she lay down at night in her pasture and never woke up.  No stress, no symptoms, no information.  We will never know what happened, as there was no autopsy done; all I know is this is the saddest thing I have had to deal with in my life to date.  Godspeed, Holly.

 

 

Warpaint

 

I could (and am going to some day) write a book about this horse, but I won’t here, since it would take too long, and I have so many stories about him.  He’s the big Appy that belongs to my wife Judy, who was kind enough to let me ride him during my period of no horses of my own to ride.  The first time I rode him, I swore it would never happen again.  On the way out from the barn, he was fine.  I turned around to go back, I got off to go through a gate, swung my leg up over the saddle, sat down, he reared up, and his head smacked me right in my head.  It broke my visor off and made me see stars.  Not so bad, except he took off at a dead run towards home, me with no feet in stirrups and my head spinning.  Lucky for me he was heading up a steep hill, so I regained my senses and yanked him off the road onto the grass.   I didn’t ride him again for a few years, until a trail ride with Judy.  I was on Rowan, we switched horses for a while.  Holy Mackerel!  This horse is so powerful I could not believe it.   I still can’t.  I got hooked.  I rode 2 fifty mile rides on him, (we fell off a cliff on one, but still finished great)  then took him on Tevis in 99 to 32nd place.   That cemented that- I want to ride him all the time now.   He’s still far and away the strongest horse I have ever ridden, and probably ever will.  (still the strongest so far- 2006)  I have him figured out now, and I can’t stay off him.   Riding him has given me some first hand experience about how good of a rider Judy is, if for nothing else than being able to survive for the 12 years she has owned him.  Funny- I told her a few times in the early days to just sell him and be done with it, but now, if we didn’t have him, I’d probably have had Judy sell me.    Horse rating- 10, but 2 for his attitude sometimes when he was younger

 

UPDATE 5/04-  Warpaint the Wonder Appaloosa of Endurance is retired now, having finished his last ride in November 2003.  He finishes his career with 4130 miles, 1000 of which I rode on him.   It was time for him to stop, since he was getting pretty creaky after rides.  He is that perfect example of a horse whose legs just can’t keep pace with that incredible heart.  We still ride him as often as we can on training rides; he’s a great training partner for the younger horses, because they can’t come close to keeping up with him. 

 

 

Zayante

 

I can’t say enough good things about this horse either.  He’s the third horse Jackie B let me ride.  He’s a legend of sorts, having gone 9000 miles now, and he did his first 100 rides without ever being pulled.  That’s amazing enough.  Julie and Bob Suhr owned him for many years and put most of his miles on him.  He’s 20 or so now and still going strong.  My first ride on him was 4 days at Death Valley, where we finished all four in perfect fashion.   Next was the FT Schelbourne XP 5 day, where we did all five days again, perfect.   Next was the Silver State 3 day multi-day- 3 more superb days.  What a horse.  We had some bad luck at Death Valley this year, I was only able to finish 2 of the 4 days.  I have 700 miles on him now, and hope to keep riding him as long as I can, and he is able to keep going.  I’d love to help get him to 10,000 miles.   This horse is one in a million as well.   Horse rating- 10, except he jigs and spooks a lot.  (who cares?  He’s a god)

 

UPDATE 5/04- Zayante currently has 11,915 miles on him, my total on him is now 2000 miles.  I have been riding him a lot, and will continue to do so as long as I and he are able.  I nominated him successfully for the 2002 AERC Hall of Fame horse, which he is now a proud member of.   I’m proud to be associated with this incredible animal.

 

UPDATE 5/06- Zayante is retired now with 13,200 career miles, the fifth highest in the history of the sport right now.  Zay had a near miss with death via a terrible colic at the Eastern High Sierra Classic in 05.  Jackie’s rider Hyromi was riding him, but was in no way responsible for what happened.  She, along with Merri Melde and Gretchen Montgomery, were responsible for his still being with us today.  He’s retired now, living back with his buddies at Jackie’s place.   I rode this incredible horse just a hair under 3000 miles.   There won’t be another Zayante.

 

 

Moose

 

Moose is a half Arab/ Quarter horse that I met at the XP ride.  I rode with his owner, Rebecca Jankovich, (a friend of Jackie’s) all week and was impressed at her horse.  He’s a real goer, strong and very willing.  Rebecca was going to be on vacation for a month (?) and asked me if I wanted to ride Moose in the 20 Mule Team 65.   I told her, yes, but I’d rather do the 100, since he had not done one yet, and she wanted to do Tevis this year on him.  I suggested that she let me ride him on his first 100, then I’d help her out at Tevis.  She agreed!  The conditions were perfect in the desert- wet everywhere, with some mud and snow, but otherwise fantasy riding conditions.   My goal was to finish at 1:00 am, and I almost made it, finishing at midnight.  Why?  Because this horse is unreal.   What an animal!  He really likes to go, but is controllable.  You have to hold him back a lot (I LIKE that in a horse), but he waltzed through that ride like it was nothing.   Super strong, best walk of any horse I have ridden,  nice trot, no spooking, just a real treat to ride.   I was trying to think of ways to take him home, but I couldn’t do that to Rebecca.  I’d take him in the blink of an eye.  He certainly rates way up there as one of the best horses I have ridden.  This guy has some serious potential.  This ride was 100% enjoyment.

Horse Rating 10.   I want him.

 

 

Redman

 

A very nice horse owned by Jackie at the time.  I rode him on one of the days at the Ft Schelbourne ride and finished in fine shape.   I realized he’s a very good horse- forward, strong, good manners.  I might have considered buying him, but I thought he might be a little too small for me. Gloria Vanderford rode him in Tevis with me in 02, she plopped his nose behind Holly, and we rode 80 miles together until I was pulled at Francisco’s for lameness.  Gloria and Redman went on to finish very well.   Jackie did sell Redman to a lucky person somewhere.   Horse rating- 7

 

Savannah

 

A HUGE, GIANT, ENORMOUS Anglo Arab mare owned by Susan McCartney and Dave Cootware.   This is the biggest horse physically I have ever ridden on a ride.  It was the Red Rock Ride in 02, it was the pre-ride for the national championship.  It was Savannah’s second fifty.  We had a little rodeo problem in the morning when I got on, but after that, she did a good job in the ride and looked very good all day.  We got pulled for overtime at the last check due to the slow pace we were going all day, and two of the other horses we were with were too tired to go on.  It was strange to be so high in the air while riding, but she’s a fine horse.  And beautiful- jet black!  Horse rating- 6

 

Phathom

 

My riding buddy Sally Abe’s new horse that she has had about three years now.  She rode him in his first two rides and found him a little strong, so she asked if I would ride him and see what I thought.  I did the Fireworks 50 on him and found him to be pretty amazing.   He is a going animal who likes to go fast, but effortlessly.  He could get a little wound up during a ride, but has improved a ton in his first 700 miles.  I finished the first ride slowly with him cantering across the finish, much to the amazement of myself and several people.  A few months later I rode him on a shine and shine 50 where I let him out a bit.  We ended up in second, but still an hour behind the winner.  It was a fun ride!  He came into the first check in 7th place and we left in first when he recovered first.  Pretty cool.  Sally also rode him in the AERC national championship ride and ended up first featherweight without really trying.  Nice horse, and she’s crazy about him.  Horse rating- 8

 

Hyanis Lady

 

Lady is a giant Anglo Arab bred and owned by Hugh and Gloria Vanderford.  I got the chance to ride her in the Tevis ride in 2004.  I rode the event along with Gloria on her horse, Lady’s barn stable buddy.  Gloria got pulled at Robinson Flat due to lameness; I made it to Michigan Bluff, but was pulled when Lady would not recover quickly enough to go on.  She’s a superb horse- a big, strong, willing thing with the smoothest trot of any horse I have ever ridden.  She had finished the Virginia City 100 in fine shape, but just did not have enough conditioning to make it through Tevis this time.  She’s a very nice horse, especially for meeting her the day before the ride, which I have done a couple of times now.   Horse rating- 8

 

 

Forever Dawn  GA  (Alias Don, Donzo, Princess, Teacup, Donnie, Ned, Pumpkin, Perky-Don, whatever)

 

Don is my newest horse- I got him in 2004.  He came to me from my very good friends Ron and Barbara Sanches.  Ron had bought Don as his next horse, but due to some physical issues that kept him from being able to ride as much as he wanted to, they needed a new home for the horse where he could be ridden up to his potential.  They thought of me: I looked at the horse, rode him, and bought him.  Smart move!  He is simply a nice horse who is forward as the dickens, but very nicely controllable, with none of the Warpaint issues.  He’s a little smaller than most arabs, but he does not show it.  I conditioned him for about a year and entered him in his first 50, which he finished with ease.  As I write this in May 2006 he is sixteen for sixteen rides now, including last weekend, where he got 5th at the American River 70, his first top ten, and was awarded Best Condition, my first ever.  Do I like this horse?  Oh yeah!   Horse rating- I’ll tell you when he has 10,000 miles!