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Avery Translates Global Lessons to the Podium
FEI.org - Full Article
06 November 2025
Stacey Stearns
Sometimes success begins by turning a different corner. For young American Endurance talent Avery Betz-Conway, that turn came two years ago in a qualifying ride, when a fellow rider fell. While others kept going, she stopped to check that both horse and rider were all right. The decision cost her time that day, but it would ultimately open a door that led all the way to the Pan American podium in Campinas (BRA).
“We stayed in touch while qualifying for the World Championships,” the 19-year-old said. “This year, his family leased a horse to me for the Pan Ams. If I hadn’t stopped to check on him during that ride, I would never have been able to compete at the Pan American Games.”
That spirit of comradeship paid off spectacularly in July, when Avery won an Individual bronze medal on Zendaya Rach at the FEI Endurance Pan American Championship for Young Riders & Juniors 2025 – the first medal for USA Endurance in more than a decade...
Read more here:
https://www.fei.org/stories/sport/endurance/avery-betz-conway-usa-pan-am-bronze
Endurance Future Part Two
WeAreOnTheLoose.com - Full Article
by Jamethiel Morse
November 1 2025
Part One, Endurance: Where are the ribbons? is here.
Life got a bit lifey and delayed the second installment of musing about the future of the sport of endurance. We left off talking about the culture of endurance, and it affects the growth (or decline) of the sport. One of the thornier issues I didn’t touch on is the heated debate over what constitutes “real endurance”. There’s a camp of folks that firmly believes that calling anything under a 50 mile ride endurance is doing a disservice to the true ethos of the sport. Some say only 100 mile rides are true endurance, and anything less is “just” training towards that ultimate goal.
This debate comes up like clockwork, to the detriment of our sport I think. Folks should be welcome to share the trails and this horsemanship journey called endurance with us, no matter if their goal is to rack up 100 milers or if completing one LD takes all their effort and time. Crunching current numbers shows that most folks (especially those that “pay a ride managers bills”) are actually “Limited Distance Riders”, between 25 and 35 miles. I myself view 50s as a comfortable middle: I get more bang for my buck than an LD, both in terms of time on the trail and a challenge completed, but I don’t have to stay awake and functional for a full 24 hours to complete 100 miles. Honestly, I also don’t have to push my mare and myself hard enough during training to be 100 miler fit and ready. The leap from comfortably turtling 50s, as my mare and I do, to completing a 100 miler is just as exponential as getting her to the starting line of our first LD was...
Read the rest here:
https://weareontheloose.com/2025/11/01/endurance-future-part-two/
Tracing the forgotten path of the first wagon train to cross the Sierra
SFGate.com - Full Article
Everyone knows the Donner Party. These are the people who came before. By Julie Brown Davis, Mountain Towns Editor
Sep 28, 2025
It was late fall in 1844 when a group of pioneers, horses, oxen and wagons arrived on the shore of a beautiful lake embedded below the wall of the Sierra Nevada. Snow had already accumulated on the ground. River crossings were ice cold. The animals were weary and ragged. But the group had hope. They’d already traveled for months, walking day after day alongside the wagons. Upon reaching the Sierra Nevada, they knew they were close to the Sacramento Valley, a destination that had lured them across the continent, but cold temperatures and shorter days were a foreboding reminder that time was not on their side.
This was the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party, the first European Americans to cross the Sierra Nevada with wagons. All 52 people survived the journey to California, including two infants who were born on the westward journey.
“They were the original pioneers that proved that you could move wagons over the Sierra Nevada,” said David Antonucci, a Tahoe historian and author...
Read more here:
https://www.sfgate.com/renotahoe/article/stephens-townsend-murphy-sierra-nevada-california-21057626.php
Endurance Competition Returns to Biltmore Following Hurricane Helene
USEF.org - Full Article
“We were under more than 20 feet of water in some locations,” said Elizabeth McLean, Director of Equestrian Activities at Biltmore, when discussing the impact of the deadliest hurricane in North Carolina history.
by Debbie Elliot | Sep 2, 2025, 9:30 AM
On September 27, 2024, wind and flooding from Hurricane Helene devastated the western Appalachian area of North Carolina, including the town of Asheville, which is home to Biltmore, a majestic house and historic property dating back to 1895. Several rivers in the region overflowed and the subsequent destruction led Helene to become the costliest natural disaster in North Carolina history.
The 8,000-acre Biltmore estate hosts two endurance rides each year: a spring ride in May and a fall ride in September. While the spring event had to be cancelled earlier this year due to ongoing recovery efforts, the Biltmore Fall Endurance Ride to Benefit Hope for Horses will take place around the estate’s stunning trail system on September 20-21. The event features a number of different classes: 30-mile Limited Distance, 50-mile, 65-mile, and 75-mile Endurance Rides, plus FEI divisions (2* Open, 1* Open and Junior/Young Rider). Biltmore's bi-annual endurance rides follow the Biltmore trails; photo by Becky Pearman
“Our primary facility and a lot of our pastures are right alongside the French Broad River in Asheville, so we had significant flooding after Helene, worse than I've ever seen, and certainly worse than the area had seen in over a hundred years,” said Elizabeth McLean, Director of the Biltmore Equestrian CenterActivities at Biltmore. “We were under more than 20 feet of water in some locations.”
There was heavy rainfall throughout the week before the brunt of Helene hit the area, then the hurricane pummeled western North Carolina, ultimately leading to 108 deaths across the state.
Fortunately, no lives were lost at Biltmore despite the property suffering significant damage...
Read more here:
https://www.usef.org/media/equestrian-weekly/endurance-competition-returns-to-biltmore