Owyhee Rangelands 25/50 Day Two

Monday May 28 2007

Yesterday’s wind blew in cooler temperatures that felt like autumn, and that made sleeping great (with windows wide open!). It made things a bit easier on the horses too, with daytime temperatures just around 70 and a cool stiff breeze blowing all day.

I got to ride Steph and John’s mare Quicksilver on the 50… only I had to have John throw the saddle on her because I still couldn’t lift my right arm. Of course that wouldn’t interfere with riding! I was sure that riding would be good physical therapy for it.

While looking forward to doing another endurance ride, it was, however, a sad day. This was my first endurance ride without the Raven Λ . I could have carried the new kookaburra along, but it just didn’t seem right putting it into the Raven’s red saddlebag. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

It’s hard to choose the best trail of the Owyhee multi-day rides - there’s not one I don’t enjoy. Today’s took us north across the highway to the Snake River again and around Wild Horse Butte. Quickie is a horse with a serious trot, like near a 20 mph trot if she really gets going, says Steph, but now she was rather pleasantly plump, and she had metabolic trouble once before when she went too fast. So we were out to complete an easy 50, something Quickie had some definite opinions about, most of which were that we were traveling too slowly. We joined up with Nance on Jazzbo, and Kara and Chris Yost leaving camp, several minutes after the front runners had left, as it looked like we’d be going about the same pace.

We climbed up out of Pickett Creek canyon into the sunrise and up onto the flats, into the stiff breeze, hooves churning up fine dust that whipped off to the side. 18 miles away to the north, staying up on the flats, was our first vet check. The wind was still pretty cool, so the hold time was cut from 50 minutes to 40. Frank and Tom Noll came in a few minutes behind our group, and since his riding partner Lynne White wasn’t riding today, he said he’d catch up with us on the next loop.

From the vet check we headed out east and north, over rolling sand hills of scrubby sagebrush and lizards and rabbits, and down into a sandy wash. The wash got deeper and narrower as you followed it, much of it higher than the rider’s head, and some places so narrow you could touch both sides. Sometimes the horses slowed around corners because they weren’t sure what might be lurking ahead! It was one place you wouldn’t want to be taking a nap in the shade during a flash flood, though it sure looks like that may not be anything to worry about this year, as it’s already awfully dry. Frank caught up with us here, and was pulling Tom Noll along as if it was his first day on the trail. Tom had his gloved hands full, and Frank thought (and looked like) he was the wild horse named after the Butte we were headed for.

The further we went, the harder Quickie pulled; I thought it was because we were pointed in the direction of home. When we’d left the vet check, home was to the right, while our trail went off to the left. Quickie was pretty sure we should be turning right. Our trail eventually turned towards home, and I thought when we turned west away from home, she’d quit pulling. Oh no, she just got stronger. All day!

Our group carried on to the Snake River, where the wind was whipping white caps up. Some of the horses were a little spooked by them, but Quickie plunged right in the river, and I had to stop her before she went right up to her belly, because I could see where it dropped off deeply right in front of us. She didn’t want a drink anyway, she wanted to chow down on the thick green grass growing on the bank.

We left the Snake River before it became a deep canyon and wound around Wild Horse Butte, headed back to the vet check, much of it on the old Oregon Trail. I never forget to think about the pioneers back in the 1800’s, when I’m riding along this trail or the Fish Canyon trail in Death Valley. We have nice jeep roads to follow on fast horses, drinking Gatorade and bottled water and snacking on Power Bars (and great real roast beef sandwiches for lunch at the vet check!), while they were struggling along with big wagons and Snake River water to drink and scrawny jackrabbits (if they were lucky) for dinner.

Two years ago right in this area, I saw what were possibly wolf tracks, (a day after which I probably saw a black wolf), and three years ago this was the area where Tom Noll and Sue Hedgecock saw cougar tracks. I kept my eyes peeled today (or closed, if the dust was blowing in them), but I didn’t see any wild cats or canines. We did, however, see a couple of antelope, which bounded away from us as we surprised them coming over a little hill.

Back into the vet check for a 50 minute hold, where Quickie ate everything in sight, including half of Jazzbo’s food. It was an easy 12 miles back home, and back into camp where we raced across the finish line… at a walk. John was snapping pictures but our finish was quite boring compared to the race for first a couple of hours earlier between Mell Hare and Joyce Sousa. That’s one thing I really like about multi-day rides, everybody going their own pace, fast, medium, slow, us slower ones just trotting along, telling stories. On the trail our group said, “I just want to finish all 3 days.” “I just want his heart rate to come down at the vet check!” “I just want to finish today!”. Tom Noll said, “It doesn’t matter if you ride slow or fast or anyway; it doesn’t matter what you’re competing for. There’s winners of the rides, winners of weight divisions, teams winners. If you just ride your own pace the competitive ones sort themselves out. I think it’s just great when you accomplish whatever your goal is.”

Owyhee County is one of the best places on the planet to ride, although since I haven’t yet met a place I didn’t like to ride, my high estimation might not hold a great deal of weight. I don’t know what exactly it is, but you just feel good after a ride. Around here we are very lucky to have local landowners who support the endurance rides, including the Joyce Ranch, where we ride along their canals and through Sinker Creek right at their ranch base, and the Sierra del Rio Ranch, where we have a vet check on one or more of the days. They certainly don’t have to let us ride through there, much less host a vet check there, but they’ve done it for years.

24 of 25 horses finished the 50, and all 8 starters finished the Limited Distance. The horses that were treated at the clinic yesterday were doing well. Quickie looked like she’d slimmed down a bit from the ride, (although surely she ate double her weight loss back!) and my arm was feeling much better. Although maybe that was only because the rest of me was pretty stiff and getting sore (hadn’t ridden that far in a while!).

If you don’t make it here to ride in this gorgeous the 5-day Owyhee Canyonlands in September, don’t come crying to me. Of course, I’ll be the one crying if I’m not here for it.

Owyhee Rangelands 25/50 Day One

Sunday May 27 2007

Owyhee Rangelands I: in the 25 miler, 15 starters and 12 finishers; in the 50 miler, 32 starters and 27 finishers.

The day started out cool and began warming up, until a big Idaho breeze kicked in after noon, which in Owyhee county usually means big dusty whirlwinds whipping through the canyon. And they did, kicking dust in waves through base camp.

Today’s 50 mile loop took horses and riders up on the desert flats and into the canyons south of base camp, on 3 loops. The finish line was moved a bit, to accommodate a killdeer who’d built a nest right by the road the horses were finishing on yesterday – several rider’s horses were spooked at the end of the 100 miler, in the daylight and the dark, when the killdeer flew up at them. Killdeer lay their eggs right on the ground. If you approach the nest fast, like on a horse, the bird will fly at your horse and get the appropriate response from him. If you walk up slowly, the killdeer will walk away from the nest, fluttering its wings as if it were injured, to get your attention on her, away from her eggs. I bet that killdeer will choose a different spot for her nest next year!

On loops two and three, just outside of base camp, the trail led up a narrow wash and up over the crest of the hill – 10 yards of it quite steep, and I hiked out to catch the horses going up with my camera. I was lurking on the opposite steep hill, clinging to my perch by a narrow seat scratched out of the dirt above a sagebrush. Some riders saw me, some didn’t. I was careful not to slip or roll any rocks down, because I would have slid quite a ways to the bottom and scared some horses off to Nevada!

Back in camp, head veterinarian Robert Washington had a hard day. After vetting a hundred mile ride the day before, he had two more 50-mile days of vetting to get through. And in the afternoon, just about the same time someone called for help for a horse going down with a bizarre respiratory distress, Robert got kicked in the knee by a horse he was vetting, one that he’d looked at several times before and that had never indicated he’d kick. People didn’t know who to run to first, the vet laying on the ground or the horse laying on the ground. Robert was able to get up and hobble around the rest of the day. The mare was more of a puzzle, especially because her son did the same thing. They’d both done an easy limited distance ride, finishing fine several hours earlier, and would seem fine, then would go down in distress, then return to appearing normal. Robert said he’d never seen anything like it. They were both hauled to a clinic for diagnosis and treatment.

Christoph Schork won the ride again in just over 5 hours, on another horse, Double Zell. Mell Hare finished second right with him on another of Christoph’s horses, DWA Sabku. Christoph brought a trailer-load for the ride. They were just 4 minutes ahead of Anthony Davis on Sweet Dependence.

Now, having been in New Zealand and Australia where strapping is taken very seriously, here we pretty much just call it cooling down your horse. There’s no line-up of 10 buckets and sponges and scrapers per horse, with 4 or 5 people waiting to douse the horse and scrape it and throw ice-cold towels on and check its heart-rate with a hand-held monitor. No, there was just a water trough and a few barrels to drink from (or jump in yourself, if you got too hot), and the riders carried their own sponges. There was a garden hose if you really wanted it, too. Of course this wasn’t a championship ride, but 5 hours for this ride wasn’t a plodding pace. When Christoph and Mell came in to the vet checks, they just got off their horses, took them to water, and while they drank, they sponged their horses’ necks. The horses cooled off without all the fuss, and vetted through.

Today’s finishers included Nance Worman on her other horse Jazzbo, (who was a maniac the first loop), and the ever popular Frank with Tom Noll. One lady at the awards said, “Nobody refers to Tom anymore, they just say Frank!” Tony and Diane Dann, who managed the ride for Steph yesterday, finished the 50 on two of their horses, Eternel Tax Man and Lou’s Lucky Strike. I had the pleasure of riding Strike with them on Thursday. He’s a big, lovely, calm National Show Horse, smooth as silk to ride.

Owyhee 100 Elevator 60/80/100

Saturday May 26 2007

Attention Frank Fan Club members! Attending the 3-day ride here in Oreana Idaho is Frank, the horse once owned by Wayne Newton (maybe) and his rider buddy Tom Noll. Their goal is not Tevis this year (“Frank’s about 17, and Tevis was a hard ride last year,” says Tom), but instead the AERC 100 mile Championship here in Oreana in August. Tom had gotten it in his head a few years ago that he wanted to do endurance, but he didn’t know how to ride. He bought Frank in 2002, and Frank taught Tom how to ride. Tom’s done most of his 2400+ miles on this horse that he obviously adores. He’s just a plain little brown bay, and he just keeps going and going down the trail, and he appears to love it. Frank has his own photo album from the ride under http://www.endurance.net/merri/Idaho/Oreana/Owyhee/Frank/index.html

A few trailers and horses started pulling in and squatting in Ridecamp at the ol’ Teeter Rancho on Thursday. Attendance for the holiday weekend ride was down, though that has been the case all over the Pacific Northwest lately. I expect gas prices have something to do with that.

13 riders started the 100 miler, and 6 riders started the 80 miler at 5:30 AM. The sky gets light about that time, and it’s still nice and cool. 42 started the 60 miler at 7 AM, including ride manager Steph, who just couldn’t stand it and had to ride her cool horse Rhett. She turned over day management of the ride to Diane and Tony Dan. John was kept busy early, racing out on the ATV to check the ribbons for the first 20 mile loop.

Riding in the 100 were, among others, Clydea Hastie, who with her husband Jim, drove up from Scottsdale. She brought two horses, one for Kevin Myers, who flew in from Scottsdale late Thursday night. Kevin brought his computer and set it up at the table with all the rest of our computers, so it was like old times in Arizona with everybody clacking away on the internet. Clydea was doing her first 100 in 11 years, and it had been 3 years since Kevin had done one. Neighbor Carol Brand was going to ride with them; she hadn’t done a hundred in 7 years.

Nance Worman started the 100 on her horse Big Sky Quinn, and planned to also do the 50 milers on Sunday and Monday on Jazzbo. She’s either a real endurance rider or a nutter!

Ham radio guys John and crew (and gals) set up at vet checks and number checks along the way. Their radio clubs do community service and help out often at the Teeter rides. They have a good time volunteering and camping out, and helped keep everything running smoothly.

The 100’s and 80’s first did a 20 mile loop back to camp for a 50 minute hold, then they took off on a 60 mile loop (that the 60’s did) headed north to the Snake River canyon and Petroglyphs.

I agreed on the bright idea to go out on the 4-wheeler and take pictures. The morning sun was just right and the Owyhee Front Range mountains and Hayden Peak to the west framed the riders as they climbed up on to the bluff flats above Bates Creek Canyon. Then I headed on to the Snake River, stopping and talking to Steve Bradley on the way, who’d gone out on his motorbike to catch the riders with his camera. He warned me about a sketchy place heading down into the canyon, which I was thankful for, because 4-wheelers scare me, or should I say, I scare myself on 4-wheelers. So I decided I wasn’t going to go that far. And turns out I didn’t even get that far before I rolled it. It was kind of like the Losing-The-Raven thing – I don’t know how it happened. Luckily I got ejected and luckily the ATV stopped rolling before it flipped once more on top of me.

Ever try to turn one of those things right side up? They’re damn heavy. I think I could only do it because I had so much adrenaline going through me I was still shaking. When I got it righted and started, I turned it right back around, drove up to the top of the little hill (still shaking), and walked down on foot, thank you very much, to take pictures. I was a little bruised and scraped and feeling a little sorry for myself until I realized it really was a Great Day, because I was sitting in this beautiful river canyon with ravens and kestrels and prairie falcons soaring above me, and I was not still laying on the trail underneath the ATV!

It got hot as the riders descended to the river and the breeze dissipated. And it turns out Carol Brand got so hot she had a heat stroke, and ended up pulling. She said “I took good care of my horse – she looked great – but I forgot to take care of me!” Hundred mile rides were easier when we were all younger!

By the time I finished my nerve-wracking ATV ride home (only nerve-wracking now because they REALLY scare me), I’d felt like I’d done a hundred miles on a horse. I’m supposed to ride a 50 on Quicksilver on Monday… I couldn’t lift my arm by the end of the day, but I’m sure I’ll be fine to ride!

5 of 6 riders finished the 80 miler, with Mell Hare finishing first, and 2nd place Ron Sproat getting BC.

First to finish the 100 in just over 10 hours was Christoph Schork on his mare Hanna CW, and he also got BC. As he would, since he was the only one who showed. 9 of the 13 starters finished, including Nance on Quinn, and Clydea and Kevin, who brought up the rear at about 2:30 AM. Of the 5 pulls in the 80 and 100, two were rider options and 3 were lamenesses.

32 of 42 finished the 60 miles, with Carrie Johnson coming in first, and 3rd place Carol Giles getting BC. Tom Noll and Frank finished very well in mid-pack, riding with Lynn White on Agnes. Three of the pulls were rider options.

A superb dinner was cooked up and served by Debra and Alan, who used to own the Blue Moon restaurant. Baked ham, potatoes, great salad, and rich cheesecake with whip cream for dessert – just what one needs after a hard day’s ride, on a horse or a flippin’ ATV!

Oreana Stories

Friday May 25 2007

I’m Hoooooooooooooome: in the southwest corner of Idaho, Owyhee County, Oreana to be precise, “population 8, maybe 9,” with the Teeters (of endurance.net). Actually, I’m homeless and truck-less; now every time I stay in a place more than 2 days the word ‘home’ slips out, be it a hostel or tent, and any time I unpack my suitcase, I start to throw a few shallow roots into the ground.

However, I’ve been to Oreana twice before, and it is like home. I first met Steph and John in Ridgecrest California 3 winters ago, where I was riding for Jackie Bumgardner and they were escaping the cold winter in Idaho. (That was also the year I invited myself along with Steph and Jackie to Egypt, but that’s another long story.) I then visited the Teeters in Oreana for a few days on my way somewhere, and just fell in love with the place.

Then in the fall Gretchen and I went to their 5-day Owyhee Canyonlands ride, and I stayed on to housesit for 10 days, then I stayed on another month. (They couldn’t get rid of me.) The Teeters live 5 miles up a creek that is settled entirely on the upper end by endurance riders. They’re surrounded on 3 sides by BLM land where you can ride forever. Sometimes we do!

Steph and John put on about 3 endurance rides a year here, a 3-day ride in May, a 5-day ride in the fall, and another 100 miler thrown in there, which this year is the AERC National Championships, 50 and 100 miles. This weekend is the Owyhee 100 Elevator Ride 60/80/100 (Saturday), and the Owyhee Rangelands I and II 25/50 (Sunday and Monday).

If you haven’t done a Teeter ride, you’re missing out. It’s great high desert country (basecamp is at about 3200 feet) to ride in where you get to see a variety of terrain – you ride across the desert, on hill ridges, in canyons sheltering great cottonwoods, by the Snake River Birds of Prey Conservation area (home to the largest concentration of raptors in North America), on the original Oregon Trail. One day’s trail takes you to the Snake River and down into the canyon among the petroglyphs – my RAVEN (may the Great Bird Spirit Rest His Feathers, er, black cloth) did this ride and posed on the petroglyph rocks. Then of course there’s good completion awards and great catered dinners, wireless internet access for the people who can’t travel without their computers (ahem), and the weather is usually cooperative. Currently it’s not so hot!

So, I’m back home for the Owyhee Rangelands ride. The suitcase is unpacked for 3 weeks (then I’m off to Europe!). The day after I got to Oreana from my three months in Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia, I hopped right back into riding, two horses a day… Steph has plenty of horses to ride, and no time to ride them!

Stay tuned for ride coverage…

Oz Quick Tour

May 19 2007

First: a word about kookaburras. Every place I went in Australia for endurance, the noisy birds were there, parrots, plovers, ibis, magpies, whip birds (whip-CRACK! is their call), and kookaburras, colorful, loud, impressive. For being such mild-looking birds, the kookaburras are LOUD. You know those jungle movies where you’re led to believe that the loud OOH OOOH OOOH OOOH! AAAH AAAH AAAH AAAH! cries are monkeys? Those are kookaburras. If you want to know what it’s like to be wakened by kookaburras, go to HYPERLINK "http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/The+laughing+kookaburra" www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/The+laughing+kookaburra click on What the kookaburra sounds like in the middle of the page, turn up the volume on your speakers at full, put them right by your ears, then hit the Play button. Better yet, have somebody else do this while you are sleeping, and you’ll know the full meaning of a kookaburra alarm clock.

I didn’t really have much time to be a tourist in Australia, but if I had, maybe I could have done this. I could have flown to Townsville (wherever that is) for a $50 cup of coffee at Hervey’s Range Heritage Tea Rooms. It’s a delicacy: a Kopi Luwak from Indonesia, a cat-like Palm Civet, eats ripe coffee beans, poos them out, the do is collected, the beans are collected from the poo, and washed, roasted and quarantined. The coffee is purported to be a “divine full-bodied blend with a hint of chocolate flavor.” But regrettably (?), I didn’t have time for this.

I had a day to wander Sydney, staying in the character-full Kings Cross district. Sydney’s a lovely city on Sydney Harbour, and the well-known symbols of the city, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge are indeed quite striking. I didn’t want to climb the Harbour Bridge (and certainly not for $170), but I did walk across it. I’ve mentioned the amazing birds and parrots all over the country several times, and in Sydney, in the lovely Botanical Gardens, (a highlight), there was no shortage of parrots, especially cockatoos, which you could get quite close to. In fact, if you are daring enough to hand seeds to them (I was not), some will come right up to you. Or, if you happen to be kneeling on the grass, bending over to look through your camera’s viewfinder as you are shooting a cockatoo 2 feet away, another one might fly up and land on your back, and start pulling at your ponytail band, at which point you slightly shrug and cringe, hoping the bird will not find your earrings and rip them out of your ears.

Now, I was feeling a little bereft (still) without the Raven, so, I picked up a little kookaburra (what else), one that makes the call when you squeeze it. I took a couple of pictures with it in Sydney… it’s just not the same. While I haven’t yet found the Raven, this isn’t quite the end of the story… (stay tuned).

Australian Endurance Conclusion

May 19 2007

First of all, same as New Zealand, I met some wonderful people who took time out of their busy lives to host me and give me a glimpse into their worlds. In New Zealand I met some of the smaller trainers and endurance riders; in Australia I met some of the icons of international endurance and the Arabian horse. Many thanks to Meg Wade and Chris Gates of Castlebar, (and all their workers), the Tofts of Toft Endurance, (and all their workers), and Ron and Val Males of Ralvon Arabian Stud, and I hope to meet many more people on my next visit!

There are quite a few similarities in endurance riding in Australia and the US.

Most notably, though a majority of endurance riders don’t participate in FEI, most people don’t mind it, and many support it.

We’re both losing trails we used to have easy access to, to housing developments and people closing their land because of insurance.

There’s rumors in both countries (and others) about people cheating: drugging horses, taking shortcuts on course. Only those who might do it know if the rumors are true, and only they have to live with themselves. Did you really win if you did any of this?

The differences:
Australia and New Zealand have logs books for every horse, which seem to be a good idea. In the book, every ride is recorded, every vet check and the results of the vet’s evaluation, and where the horse finished or when he vetted out (pulled) and why. The US doesn’t - we only have vet cards for each ride, which we present to the vets at the vet checks, and carry with us during the ride, and turn it over to the vets (ride manager) after the ride. If you want these after the ride, you can have them. However, we in the US have the great resource of online records, for horses and riders, with our AERC organization online, which is very handy and convenient, which is not available in Australia (or New Zealand), though I’ve heard that it might be available in the future. It takes a great deal of work, and our AERC people do a great job of keeping it up to date as soon as possible.

While Australian 40 km rides (25 milers) are strictly Training Rides, have a time limit of not finishing faster than 6 hours (and not slower than 8 hours), US training rides, or Limited Distances (LDs), have become quite competitive and many LD riders want placings, awards, and Best Conditioned judging just like the 50 mile and over rides.

As for the 160 km FEI rides, especially the FEI rides, where the ride is supposed to be 6 loops, it seems that strategy and speed are the focus of the ride, and the strappers and veterinarians carry more responsibility for the welfare of the horse. In 100 mile US rides where there are, say, 3 long loops, with 3 hour-long vet checks and maybe another 15-minute hold on one of the loops, the rider has more time where he or she must be responsible for the horse out on the trail and adjust his or her riding accordingly. In the US now, at many rides, 30 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles or multi-days, at least in the West and Pacific Southwest where I ride, the trend is becoming so that every head veterinarian of every ride will give a pre-ride speech deferring the responsibility of the horse’s wellbeing on the RIDER. The vet sees the horse for maybe 2 minutes at each vet check - and likely not the same vets see the same horses - and he or she is there to HELP the rider assess the condition of the horse during those two minutes. The rider has been on the horse the last few hours and should know how the horse is feeling, and the rider should know if the horse needs slowing down or stopping. The veterinarian can’t possibly be expected to know how the horse feels underneath the rider, nor predict what might happen another 20 miles down the trail, even if the horse does look good in those two minutes. If you don’t know your horse, you really shouldn’t be riding it, their opinion. Of course, anything can happen at any time out on the course, but it’s certainly not the vet who should blamed for anything that goes wrong. Fairly recently in the US one vet was sued by a rider who, after his horse passed a vet check, went back out on trail, over-rode his horse, and the horse died. Whose fault was it? If actions like this become common it will threaten rides, because what vet would possibly consent to vetting a ride if he’s held responsible for a rider killing his horse?

Australia has commentators broadcasting at vet checks throughout the rides (as does New Zealand). Of course that’s for the strappers, so they know when their riders are approaching, since time in the vet check gates into holds is crucial, especially for those out to compete, not just complete. The US has some radio check people, which do number checks out on course for some rides, but it’s just to guard against emergencies, and to turn the list into ride management later to make sure people have stayed on course.

In the US, we don’t put a lot of work into strapping, especially at the non-FEI rides. Personally I hadn’t even heard of ‘strapping’ and had to look up what the heck it meant. Sure, we put water on our horses if their heart rates need bringing down, but normally we don’t have a crew of people and a slew of buckets doing it. We might have a ‘crew,’ who will maybe be carrying a bucket of water and a sponge in one hand for the horse, and a beer or Dr Pepper J in the other hand for the rider.

Most people I visited in Australia heavily use electrolytes, and by ‘heavily,’ I mean feeding in feed before and during rides, and electrolyting by mouth syringe going out on every loop. Plenty of people in the US do that also, but some of the ‘old school’ endurance riders, whom I learned from, might add electrolytes to feed before and during rides (if then), but don’t syringe additional electrolytes during the rides. I know that with a couple of horses I rode a couple hundred miles on each, we tried it both ways, and there was no difference, although of course I was not doing hundreds in 12 hours, nor 50 milers in 4 hours. There is a corroborating study I just read about, in one of the Australian States’ endurance newsletters. The French endurance team had always, prior to the year - I think it was around 2002 - given their horses oral electrolytes going out on every loop in 160 km endurance rides. For the 2-year study, they completely stopped supplementing the horses during the rides, and it was found that every single horse had better completion rates and less metabolic problems once they stopped administering the electrolytes. From my observations, my conclusion is, both people - those who use a lot of electroytes, and those who don’t - swear by their methods.

Again, I didn’t spend nearly enough time in Australia either, to come to enough concrete conclusions about the endurance world there. I will just have to return one day and continue my studies!

Quick Horse Farm Tour

Sunday May 13 - Monday May 14

This region here, the Hawkesbury district of New South Wales, an hour or so from Sydney, is for horses and horse farms like the Santa Ynez Valley in California, or Lexington in Kentucky. Lots of horse people, lots of horse farms. While staying with the Males, I had a few quick visits to 3 farms near Ron and Val’s place.

Ningadoo Arabian Stud is owned by Justine Blunt and her daughter Claudia Reid. Justine and her husband Gaire, (who passed away 2 yrs ago), bought a place a few kilometres down the Colo River from Ron and Val’s. Justine thought it would be a great getaway, a place to have nice picnics in the summer. They had no intention of having horses, until they met Ron and Val (not so surprising!). Gaire, always game for a go at something new, decided they’d all do a 40 km training ride. They rode down the road to Ralvon, where the ride was taking place, and they couldn’t figure out why there were so many buckets out everywhere. They hadn’t even brought halters along. After the first 20 km loop, Justine’s and Gaire’s horses vetted out - all of them, horses and humans exhausted, and Claudia didn’t think she could possibly do another 20 km by herself, so she talked a neighbor into floating her back home (just down the road!).

That was their first introduction to endurance riding - and that might well have ended their foray into endurance. But they kept at it, got hooked, and eventually decided to start their own stud in 1989. At one time they had 50 horses on the place - stallions, broodmares, horses in training; but now since Gaire died, they’ve scaled back to 22 or so horses, with two stallions, an Aethon son Koda, now 25 yrs old, and Nangadoo Taban, now 12, who’s still competing in endurance. He was 3rd in the 2004 Quilty, and Best Conditioned. They consistently sell good horses to the UAE, and Claudia herself has competed successfully all over Australia, and in Tasmania and Abu Dhabi. They have a lovely little stretch of valley right along the Colo River, lush green pastures and leaves turning golden on some of the trees.

They are used to foreign buyers coming to look at the horses, so one day when someone rang and said they were coming to look at horses, it was routine as usual on a horse farm; Claudia had been out taking care of a horse who’d cut himself up. She had just returned to the house covered in blood, when this man came to the door, “Hi, I’m the Sultan (now King) of Malaysia,” he said more or less. Claudia said, “Nobody told me the Sultan of Malaysia was coming! I couldn’t have been any filthier if I tried!”

Next was Ray and Kerry Smith’s River Oak Arabian Stud a few kilometres down the road in the other direction. Ray worked for Ralvon Arabians for 10 years, and Kerry also worked there as a secretary. Ron said that during the time Ray worked there, they’d had some 200 horses on the farm, 4 employees, “everything full on,” with work, breeding and broodmares and horses in training or showing, and they’d still find time to sit and talk and laugh about old times. Ray had some broodmares and would breed a few on the side for free and sell them for $15,000, $20,000 dollars, so “that was a good bonus for him,” says Ron. “We couldn’t have gotten where we did without him, and he couldn’t have gotten to where he did without us. It’s been great for both of us.”

Ray remembers his first endurance ride many years ago. It was 75 miles, and he was whooped, and he thought, “Why am I doing this!?” But as we die-hard endurance riders tend to do, he continued on to finish the ride, and naturally got hooked. He’s finished a couple of Quilties, and also had numerous champion show horses of his own breeding. They’ve got some 65 or so horses on the place now, 7 or 8 stallions, including the beautiful black River Oak Tabu, who’s by Arabian Park Egyptian Magnetic, sire of Trevor Copland’s black stallion Egyptian Harmony, and Ningadoo Arabian’s Ningadoo Taban, who I’d just seen. Tabu consistently produces successful halter and performance show horses, and his get are also doing well as endurance horses in the Middle East.

A few years ago Ray was diagnosed with cancer, so he’s been out of riding for 20 months, but he’s now healthy and in remission, and ready to start riding again. They’re quite busy now, as they’re having an ‘Open Barn’ on the weekend where many horses are for sale,


Next was Mark and Lesley and son Brody Freeman’s Cedar Ridge Arabians. They got started breeding Arabians just for fun, to have a nice horse or two for their kids to ride in the pony club - and if they were going to breed Arabians, might as well be some nice ones. One day neighbor Peter Cole, owner of Chip Chase Sadaqa, invited Mark to ride with him. Mark wasn’t sure which of his horses to ride, maybe Cedar Ridge Rob Roy. Peter asked the breeding of the horse, and when he heard his breeding (Flash Design out of one of their first broodmares, Stoodleigh Nikia), Peter said, “That’s a nice horse, you should do endurance on him.” Mark said, “What’s endurance?”

Mark started riding with Peter Cole, and eventually did his first ride on Rob Roy. Mark and Rob Roy’s 3rd ride (and completion) was the Quilty. Mark was addicted! Over Rob Roy’s endurance career, he accumulated over 9000 endurance kilometres. After finishing the Quilty, he started winning rides; he finished his first 20 rides in a row in the top 5 without a pull. He was the first horse to win at all distances: 80, 100, 120, 160, and 400 km. He holds the Shahzada record of 26 hrs and 42 minutes, and he won it twice.

The Freeman’s son Brody was the one who had the idea to turn their endurance hobby into a business. Now Mark and Lesley don’t ride so much (they have about a dozen Quilties and a dozen Shahzadas between them) but they enjoy strapping, and the breeding end of the business. They currently have over 100 horses, and sell all their horses to clients in the Middle East, because there’s no profit in selling them locally.

They lost their house in the 2001 bush fires; they brush it off as if it was nothing, but it had to have been terribly traumatic. It happened so fast they didn’t have time to think what to get out of the house - they lost all their horse papers, photos, everything. They had 5 minutes to jump in their car and leave; a friend who was also fleeing the area stopped by and asked what she could grab. Mark and Lesley told her to grab what she thought they’d want, and she thought to take their Quilty buckles and endurance trophies on the way out the door. Luckily there were only 2 horses on the place - the rest were on their other farm 2 hours away - and someone picked those two horses up in a float on their way out.

For a while, their street was lightheartedly - but with some truth - referred to by Mark as “the endurance center of the universe” because between him and Lesley and Peter Cole, and other endurance neighbors on the road, they’d had a lot of wins and miles, Quilties and Shahzadas, between them.

They have a beautiful place with a view on the back porch to the forest below and beyond, some of it National Park. You can’t see any trace of the fires anymore; the eucalyptus have quickly returned. When they first moved to their place many years ago, there were only 2 houses. Now they’re surrounded by houses, and they no longer have direct access to the forest land trails - they have to haul a short distance away to get to the good and long training trails.

I’m certainly not doing any of these farms justice with just a quick visit; they’re just a sample of the tip of the iceberg in Australian endurance.