Helena woman keeps vow to dying sister, by
finishing 100-mile horse race
Bobbie Pomroy's family was waiting to
congratulate her as she crossed the finish line at the Tevis Cup in California
recently, with one notable exception — her sister, Wanda Allen.
Jon Ebelt IR Staff Photographer - Montana City's
Bobbie Pomroy recently completed a one-day grueling horse race that covered 100
miles of tough California terrain including such challenges as 100-degree heat,
crossing rivers and maneuvering past a swing bridge.
Allen succumbed
to lung cancer in 2001, leaving Pomroy to carry out her dream of riding her
Arabian, Hopper, in the annual, daylong endurance race that travels the 100
miles between Lake Tahoe and Auburn.
"I told her I'd take her horse to
the Tevis Cup and she sort of laughed," Pomroy said, her eyes misting over with
tears as she recalled the conversation with her dying sister, and the promise
she made.
Looking back, Pomroy admits that the solemn vow was somewhat
laughable given that her riding experience at the time was next to none.
"She was the horse person," Pomroy said. "I was the
runner."
And Pomroy is no recreational jogger. In fact, she has competed
in several ultra-marathons over the years, including one that covers the same
ground as the Tevis Cup — six times.
Pomroy is credited with founding the
Elkhorn Mountain Endurance Run with the aid of her husband, Jim.
Pomroy
is still a runner, but she put ultra-marathons on the backburner while she
learned to ride the spirited horse that her sister brought home as a yearling
and trained.
It took Pomroy four years — including countless hours of
riding, and a lot of bumps and bruises — to get herself and Hopper prepared and
qualified for the strenuous ride.
"For the first couple of years, it was
a chore to go out and ride," she said. "Now, I wake up and think, ‘I get to go
out and ride."'
However, at 5:15 a.m. on race day, Pomroy wasn't too sure
about what she had gotten herself into.
"It was scary at the start,"
Pomroy said.
She explained that the 199 horse/rider teams were separated
into three groups — she threw her lot in with the highly competitive teams so
she could get ahead of the pack and leave the more unpredictable horses
behind.
However, the start was still a cramped, mad dash in the
beginning, and Hopper had a tendency to kick should another horse get too
close.
Just the same, Pomroy said it wasn't long before she and Hopper
established their place in the pack, allowing them to concentrate on the
obstacles that stood between them and the finish line.
One such obstacle
was a swinging bridge that the pair had to cross.
"She had never done
anything like that before," said Pomroy, who explained that Hooper quickly
accepted the swaying motion of the bridge as she trotted across, Pomroy leading
the way.
Next was the treacherous stretch of trail that the team had to
cross at night, in the dark.
Pomroy explained that riders weren't allowed
to use headlamps because the harsh light might blind the animals, so many people
used glow sticks to illuminate the path.
Pomroy and Hopper chose to forge
ahead without any such aid, with Hopper feeling her way along the route which
bordered a steep ravine.
"I kept telling her, ‘Careful girl. Pay
attention. You're such a good girl,'" Pomroy said.
Then, Pomroy was
nervous about crossing the American River, only a few miles from the finish
line.
She recalls watching the horse ahead of her — at least two or three
hands taller than 14-hand Hopper — get shorter and shorter as it walked into the
water.
But Hopper forged ahead, swimming when she had to, Pomroy
said.
Above all the obstacles, Pomroy dreaded the oppressive heat most.
In the valleys, temperatures soared to well above 100 degrees at
times.
According to Pomroy, her bargain with Hopper was that she would
dismount and run the valley portions and ride out of the steep ravines in an
effort to help Hopper beat the heat and fatigue that Pomroy knew would surely
set in.
Pomroy says her heart dropped when, on the way out of one of the
canyons, Hopper let out a huge sigh and stopped moving. Pomroy pushed her on,
but Hopper stopped again.
At that point, Pomroy jumped off Hopper and ran
alongside her until they reached the crest of the ravine.
"After that,
she was fine," said Pomroy, adding that she almost believes Hopper's break on
the trail was really a way of gauging Pomroy's commitment to finishing the race,
and to Hopper. She passed.
Looking back, Pomroy thinks her sister might
have had a good laugh at seeing her hoof it out of the canyon as she had in past
ultra-marathons, but this time, with Hopper in tow.
According to Pomroy,
all the years of training, and the stress of the actual race, were well worth it
when the finish line came into view.
"It was absolutely wonderful," she
said. "My family was there and I know my sister was there in
spirit."
Sitting in her desk at the Montana Affiliate of the Susan G.
Komen Breast Cancer Foundation office last week — her inner thigh and leg still
raw from being chafed by the saddle — Pomroy could honestly say she was
content.
"We did it," she said.
Now, Pomroy said, she just has to
choose her next challenge.
