Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I rode *Marinera, a Peruvian Paso mare, in the 1966 and 1968 Tevis Cup Rides. (okay, I know most of you were not born then) She finished in the top 20% both times.   I was a very enthusiastic, but totally ignorant rider and the fact that she survived my incessant demands was only by the grace of God.
The conventional wisdom in the 60s was that a horse had only one or two good hundred milers in it in a lifetime and then you should retire the horse to pleasure riding.   (Not that the Tevis wasn't pleasure but it does have a high stress factor to mute the bliss) In the thousands of miles I rode *Marinera, I do not think she ever stumbled. She picked those front feet up high, placed them down and never dragged them forward.   She never shied or veered from the path I indicated, never reared or bucked.   Highly strung, our most joyous rides were by ourselves through the Santa Cuz Mountains without the competition of other horses.   She left us at age 30 with two of her nine offspring to take her place and carry us effortlessly through rugged country.    She took a middle aged housewife and made her Ten Feet Tall (shameless plug); forced a   family to move to the country so I could be near her, had a ranch named after her, a road named after her, a publishing company named after her, an e-mail address named after her.   She changed the course of my life and for that I will be ever grateful. I can see her burial spot from my window as I type this.    Julie Suhr
PS She was not named after the spaghetti sauce which is spelled differently.   They dance the "Marinera" in Peru. And, my, how she danced over these mountains.