Kyle Gibbon: Young Rider/Junior World Endurance Championship Competitor

Wednesday November 30 2011

Kyle Gibbon's first endurance ride with Steve Rojek could well have been his last.

Kyle, then 18, had already ridden endurance for 3 years, but he was used to his own paint horse and "little short-moving Arabs." And it had been a long time -  5 months - since his last endurance ride, when Kyle crossed the starting line on the Carolina hundred-mile ride on Steve's horse. Mel was an Arabian/Saddlebred cross, "a huge mover, very different - it was a different saddle, different pace - I was usually more of a conservative rider," Kyle says. "It was fast. And that horse beat me up! Every muscle I had hurt. Even every finger was bruised from the reins. Plus it was cold and raining. I was so glad when he was pulled at 75 miles for lameness, I crawled into the warm horse trailer and fell asleep. I was so sore I couldn't move!"

But Kyle lived to ride again - the very next week - with Steve Rojek, on another of Steve's horses Julio, this time a familiar Arabian, to a first place finish on a 50-mile ride. It was the cementing of a successful working relationship with the Rojeks, which has led Kyle, now 21, to his first ride overseas in the Young Rider/Junior World Endurance Championship in Abu Dhabi on December 10th. "I owe it all to Dinah and Steve. All thanks goes to them."


Kyle will be riding Steve's 16-year-old Arabian gelding Misu Koran in the 75-mile Championship in the UAE. Kyle's many years of riding experience since he was a youngster, his interest in jumping and showing, plus his 6 years and 5310 AERC miles of endurance experience will come in handy with Misu Koran.

"He's difficult to ride. He's the most difficult horse we have. He's very anxious and uptight. Some days he is good... but most days he's hot." Kyle has figured a few things out about Misu Koran over their 2 seasons and 9 rides together, which include 6 Top Ten finishes, 3 hundred-mile completions, a Best Condition Award, and a Bronze Medal at this year's North American Young Rider 75-mile Championship in Kentucky.

"We do a lot of cross training with all our horses - dressage, jumping, riding to the gas station and tying them up to stand and wait... but Misu's a little different. I don't treat him quite the same as the other horses. Despite his difficulty though, he's a sweet horse."

The Pennsylvania native, who now lives and works for the Rojeks in Vermont in the summers and Georgia in the winters, crewed for Steve Rojek in the Pan American Championship in Uruguay in 2009, so he has some idea of the kind of international competition and flavor that the Juniors and Young Riders will face in the UAE Championship.

"It will be interesting, and a lot different... It's desert - sandy, dusty, maybe even a sandstorm to deal with. There's driving around, tossing water bottles... (In the UAE, a crazy number of vehicles race over the sand alongside the riders and horses in the race, with crews passing water bottles through the car windows, or crews jumping out at regular intervals, handing out water bottles to riders on the fly, so the horses constantly have water poured on them.) But I don't think that will bother my horse."

None of the adventure seems daunting, and Kyle feels fortunate to be participating in it.

"I'm expecting we can do well; I'm hoping we can complete a team and maybe earn a medal. It will be so cool, meeting all these people from all over the world. It's going to be great!"

Steven Hay: Young Rider/Junior World Endurance Championship Competitor

Tuesday November 29 2011

The timing is a bit inconvenient for the Junior at Penn State University. "I leave on the 4th for Abu Dhabi, miss a week of school, get back on the 12th and have finals that week."

But, Steven Hay, an environmental resource management and engineering major, is willing to make the sacrifice. He is one of four riders representing the USA in the Young Rider/Junior World Endurance Championship in the UAE on December 10th.

"I'm terribly excited. I'm thrilled to have this opportunity!"

Steven will say it's his grandmother who is ultimately responsible for this ride of a lifetime. "She always had horses; I always thought they were fascinating." He first started riding lessons when he was 6 years old. As his riding skills developed, he tried showing, but that was "not really interesting" to him. "A neighbor of mine did CTR (Competitive Trail Riding) and I tried that, and that led me to endurance."

Steven's first endurance ride was in 2003, and since then, he's logged 2770 miles, including a 10th place finish in the Biltmore 100 in 2009 on his horse Twenty Four Carrots. It was their fourth attempt at a hundred together (they finished the Vermont 100 in 2008), and his most memorable ride. "We were on the last loop; it got dark, and our group slowed down. My horse went in front and picked it up and led the way in the dark. It was such a great feeling of having such a strong horse at the end of 100 miles. I didn't even know we'd finished 10th!"

While Steven had always had an interest in riding internationally some time in the future, he never expected the opportunity to come so soon. Only a couple of months ago, he found out he would just make the age limit allowing him to compete in the Championship in Abu Dhabi this year (Young Riders are up to 21 years of age). And while he has his own horses, he couldn't afford to passport them; and anyway, none of them were quite up to the international level of competition.

Enter fellow Northeast endurance rider Natalie Muzzio and her horse Khalil Asam. "I was talking to Natalie about it on the phone one day ... and, well, here we are!"

Steven and Khalil had already gotten to know each other quite well after five endurance rides together over the last 2 years, which included 5 Top Ten finishes, 1 Best Condition, and 2 Individual Bronze Medals (both in the North American Young Riders Championshipa). "He's a very motivated horse. He has quite the work ethic. When I get on him, he seems to know me: 'We have business to take care of!' " The 10-year-old gelding is, however, a handful. "I wouldn't say he's easy to ride," Steven says, "but he's a great horse, a phenomenal athlete."

It's the first time Steven and his fellow Junior and Young Rider team members have ridden in international competition other than the 2011 Adequan/FEI North American Junior & Young Rider Championships in Kentucky. It is in fact Steven's first time out of the country. "We're expecting a different ball game over there. It's not going to be your normal backyard endurance ride.

"But we are going over to have a good experience, absorb, see what it's like to compete internationally. We're hoping for a good race, and have our horses come out of it well."

Thoughts of school and finals will be on the backburner for a week during this endurance experience of a lifetime, representing his country in the Championship.

"It's really quite an honor!"


top photo by Susan Stickle

Kelsey Kimbler: Young Rider/Junior World Endurance Championship Competitor

Saturday November 26 2011

What were you doing when you were 18 years old? If you're like me, you weren't doing anything half as exciting as preparing to fly halfway around the world to compete in a Young Rider/Junior World Endurance Championship, like 4 young men and women from the US are about to do.

Endurance rider Kelsey Kimbler, 18, of Aberdeen, South Dakota, is one of those Young Riders. Currently a full-time student at Northern State University studying biology, she'd never heard of such an event until she was at the AERC (American Endurance Ride Conference) annual convention in March of this year. There she met Belgian endurance rider and author ("Endurance, a French Perspective"), Leonard Liesens, who talked about the Championship in Abu Dhabi on December 10, and encouraged her to work on qualifying for it. When Liesens said Abu Dhabi would pay for the travel expenses for horses and riders, the appealing idea stuck in her head. Kelsey and fellow Young Rider Kyle Gibbon decided to work towards that ultimate international competitive endurance goal, even though the idea seemed "a bit far-fetched."

Implausible as it sounded, that's exactly where Kelsey is headed right now with her mom Kelly, and her older sister Kirsten's gelding, Cody Canuck.

When Kirsten left for dental school this year, Kelsey took over riding Cody Canuck competitively. They completed their first ride together at this year's Fort Howes 75-mile ride in June, finishing 5th.  A seasoned endurance horse with 1655 AERC miles, Cody, 14, is the Kimbler family's best horse. "He has a great work ethic... but he doesn't really care for people. He has his moments where he gets a little crazy at times, but he's really OK."

As a youngster, Kelsey remembers her older sister's infatuation with horses. "Kirsten loved horses. She had a toy horse that she played with." When the Kimbler family moved to South Dakota, Kirsten started riding at a nearby Arabian farm. Kelsey was in elementary school when she first got on a horse. Eventually, the whole family competed on the Arabian show circuit.

Around this time father Carl Kimbler saw an ad for the Tevis Cup at his local feed store. Though that seemed an impossible goal because the ride was all the way across the country, the seed idea was planted in his head. The Kimblers rode Arabians. Why not endurance? Why not an objective of the Tevis Cup, the Holy Grail of endurance riders?

Sound familiar?

Carl Kimbler and his daughter Kirsten rode their first endurance ride together in 2003. Mom Kelly and daughter Kelsey rode their first endurance ride in 2004. (Two more sisters have started since then.) In 2007, Kirsten was awarded the 2007 USEF Youth Sportsman's Award. Kelsey has followed in her sister's footsteps, receiving the 2010 AHA Youth of the Year, and the 2010 USEF Junior Equestrian of the Year and Youth Sportsman Charter Overall awards. Kelsey also won the 2006 and 2008 AERC Junior National 100 mile award for completing the most 100-mile rides of any Junior in North America.

In 2006, at the age of 13, Kelsey and her dad finished their first Tevis Cup together. Kelsey's second Tevis Cup finish in 2010 was one of her most memorable rides, ever.

"My sister Kirsten and I planned to ride together the whole ride and finish as high up as we could, because our horses were in great shape. But Kirsten was pulled at the first vet check, and as I needed a sponsor (in Tevis, Juniors under 18 must ride with a sponsor), I kept getting new ones, because they kept getting pulled. In all, 5 of my sponsors were pulled, and my last sponsor was Barbara White.** It was crazy how things turned out to be. I got to ride the last miles and finish with Barbara [the year Barbara received her 30th Tevis buckle]. I would never trade that experience for anything!"

Kelsey is an experienced rider, with 3345 AERC miles and 13 100-mile completions to her credit. And while Kelsey has competed in 4 National Young Rider endurance rides (winning and receiving Best Condition in 2009 on Junior CAHR), she is looking forward to the unlikely idea that has come a reality - her first overseas ride and first World Championship, and another most memorable endurance experience.

"I'm really excited!"


**Barbara White is a Tevis legend, with a record 31 finishes. It's probably safe to say that just about anybody would be honored to ride with Barbara!