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As a very young girl, I can
always remember loving and admiring every horse every breed, every color. I would cut out colored paper horses and
supply them with bobby-pin legs and gallop for miles and miles across the green
carpet of the living room (per grid inch it was an early endurance ride). My oldest sister had the liberty of the
riding lessons and drill team. I watched, and I watched. My first horse was a ¾
Arabian filly that I purchased for $75 over 30 years ago in Park City. Her name was Uinta. She was magnificent.. I raised her. But in reality she taught
me so much about patience and perseverance. I trained her, initially for
pleasure rides then local fun rodeos and eventually Ride and Tie. Many
might remember the rugged Park City Ride and Tie. It was quite
a famous trail. Unita and my women teammates (several
over the years but always with Uinta) won the 2 women’s division 8 out the past
10 years and won the National Championship in 1984. We were walking on
clouds.
Perhaps the Ride and Tie
encouraged my athletic interaction with my equine companions, which matured to
the sport of Endurance racing. Or
perhaps it was just riding the trails of the Pony Express, the hideouts of Butch
Cassidy at the Outlaw Trail or even the haunting, driving pioneer spirits of the
Applegate Lassen trails, Overland trails, Mail trails and Wagon train trails over our great
American venture and quest for the good life of the West. Most of these
nostalgic trails are still only accessible on a horse! It’s wild and I love it!
It’s not the blue ribbons,
silver trophies or belt buckles(I've given most to children's riding
camps) rather endurance is a race and we thrive on the stimulation of
finding the trail and finishing with a sound, healthy, happy horse. My horses
always felt the excitement, and knew they did what the Arabian
horse was bred for over thousands of years – strength, stamina, endurance and
to please the master.
It’s still there, in
spirit. The nostalgia of the Old
West trails seems to ease the pressure of everyday, Y2K rush and tension. And
the giving and wishing only to please attitude and camaraderie of your equine
companion. How can I say I have it
better than any other equine sport, but it could be true. I’m out there! I’m out there with the Old West trails,
breathing deep the rain on sage or feeling the warm glow of Bryce canyon on a cold Fall day - only warm from the
intense color of the cliffs. I’m
out there in the vastness of the Nevada desert and racing the antelope or
Mustang Stallion stride for stride until their intuition and freedom allows a change of direction
beyond the destination endurance trail.
I’m amazed that although
this might be my horses’ first journey on
Pony Express, he seems to know the way from the signs left by previous
pony spirits. It’s the complete trust in my horse, knowing
he has the night eyes on a
100-mile ride following a marble canyon with just a glimpse of the full moon.
Endurance is this powerful camaraderie and the athletic teamwork.
My horses have given me so
much. So much more to life. And
shared so much –
A
once in a lifetime sunrise, the noon sun streaking through a thick forest heavy
with fog, or alone with the sound of the musical tempo of hooves over a golden
road of Fall leaves.
It’s
poetry!
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