Remington, my 13.3 hh Icelandic riding partner, passed the 9,000 career endurance miles mark last Sunday on Day 2 of the Grand Canyon XP Ride. According to the AERC records, he is the twentieth horse to do this and, at 9070 career miles, now ranks no. 18 on the AERC list of high mileage horses.
Remington is the first horse I ever owned and is the first horse I ever rode as an adult. He will always be my favorite horse. He can be gentle like when he allowed me to ride him ever so carefully three months after the surgery to repair my broken leg and knee in 2000. Or he can be fierce like when he chased off a large bear which confronted us on the aptly named Upper Oso Trail in the Santa Barbara backcountry. I've had to take blood thinners lately for medical reasons, so I feel lucky to be able to ride a veteran horse who will take care of me on the trail. I really love this pony.
Yesterday, while I was riding on the Rainbow Rim Trail along the north rim of the Grand Canyon on Day 4 of the ride I thought about something other endurance riders have asked me on occasion. Sometimes people ask me why I would be crazy enough to want to ride slow and spend all day out there on the trail on my horse. So here I was on a day away from the office riding a great horse on a beautiful day in the most gorgeous scenery imaginable, wondering who's crazy?
