Friday June 5 2026
AERC’s “Decade Team” recognizes those equine and rider teams who completed at least one endurance ride (50 miles or more) each year for 10 years.
I’ve pretty much accomplished the main endurance riding goals I’ve had over 20+ years. Tevis Cup - check. Virginia City 100 - check. Ridden thousands of miles in beautiful country with good company - check. Even gotten a couple of Best Conditions - check. The only thing left I’d really like to accomplish would be a Decade Team. In all my years of catch riding, I got so close on one horse owned by Steph Teeter, 9 years on the best ever Jose Viola.
This is Willie’s 10th year in endurance riding. Could we actually really do it together????
I tried not to think about it too hard, and I wanted to get it over with early in the season, because, the longer you wait, the more your odds go against. There’s likely a bad fire season is coming up, with much of the West in a drought and everything already so terribly dry. When smoke is bad I won’t train, and rides might even get cancelled because of fires. Not to mention the skyrocketing gas prices with no end in sight.
So I set my sights on the Antelope Island ride April 18-19. Beautiful ride, the perfect terrain for Willie’s first ride of the season.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, here’s what:
April 18-19 - Antelope Island ride was cancelled! With much of the West having a terribly warm winter with little snow, or late snow that melted quickly and warmed right back up - the gnat hatch on the island came weeks early. That would have made conditions miserable for humans and horses, so ride manager Jeff wisely postponed the ride till October. (The week before the Antelope horse ride, the human Buffalo Run was also cancelled.)
May 4 - Willie and I rode over rattlesnake!!! Trotting along a home trail made narrow by tall golden cheatgrass, we passed over it before I even noticed it. It was a smaller one, and I have no idea if we hit it or if it struck after Willie zoomed by; I just know my heart was in my throat. This has been a big snake year; I’ve seen more diverse snakes in April and May than I’ve seen most entire years.
May 10 - Willie stepped on my foot. Made me howl! Normally he’s very aware and careful to never step on me, but the grass was tall and I had one foot back as I stretched forward with the other foot, and he never saw my poor foot that he walked on. Luckily nothing broken, I just hobbled around for a few days.
May 19 - I STEPPED ON A RATTLESNAKE!!!!! I stepped under the hay tarp before I looked, and when I lifted the tarp up, my foot was on a curled up snoozing rattlesnake! I don’t know who was more startled. I screamed, jumped backwards and fell down and smacked my head on a (luckily) plastic bin. I laid there shaking while the snake slowly unwound and stretched out and meandered underneath another tarp. It was almost 3 feet long. The only reason I wasn’t bitten was because the snake was snoozing and it wasn’t my time. (Also, I didn’t knock myself out or give myself a concussion from hitting my head.)
May 24 - Sunday we arrived at Ridecamp at City of Rocks (we arrive early so Connie and I can start hiking and marking trails in the parks), just missing a gnarly looking thunderstorm to the north of us. Also, there was a 70% chance of rain and thunderstorms for Saturday when Willie and I would be riding our 50! And you know me, I am terrified of lightning.
May 25 - Monday while out riding Willie on the park trails with Connie on DWA Papillon, we saw the blow-up of the Summit Creek fire (started by the previous day’s lightning storm) just over the mountain from Ridecamp. (See top pic, smoke above Willie's head, that's when it first started.) Fortunately the wind was blowing it away from us, but we’d be watching that all week.
May 28 - Thursday a horse got loose in Ridecamp, galloped through our pasture fence and took it down, and all 4 of our horses got out. Luckily it was during the afternoon when many people were around, so they were able to help me surround and catch our herd before they went far, and luckily nobody got hurt.
And so….. we finally made it to Saturday morning, Day 2, the start of our 50 mile ride!
See Part 2 coming up.
