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 2008 Virginia Highlands Endurance Challenge – Behind the scenes point 
of view

Last fall Tom Sites, an SERA board member from Virginia started a ball 
rolling that is likely to keep going for a long time. He noted that 
there were no SERA sanctioned rides in Virginia and determined to get 
one started he connected a few people together who took that ball and 
ran with it. By late January a team of ride managers -Don and Nicki 
Meuten, trail masters - Nancy Sluys and Gina Hagis, secretary - Laura 
Cullins and logistical engineers - Tom Hagis and Bill Sluys embarked on 
a whirlwind project that resulted seven months later in the first annual 
Virginia Highlands Endurance Challenge.

Getting a new ride started in such a short time in a new area gave a 
whole new meaning to the word “endurance”! The first two items of 
business, acquiring the permit (which we didn’t have in our hands until 
two weeks before the ride!) and finding the base camp were hard enough 
let alone putting all the other pieces together that made this first 
ride such huge success. Don chose to make it a two-day ride to 
accommodate the people who had to travel far so folks would be able to 
do two days of riding for the same fuel price and even though the plan 
seemed daunting at first, it turned out to be a great idea. Luck smiled 
on us in every way (mixed in with lots of hard work), we found the ideal 
camp, the weather was as perfect as it could be and a large number of 
riders showed up to support the new ride. That in itself was a huge 
challenge as three weeks before the ride there were fifteen entries for 
each day of the two-day ride and we had no idea how many would attend 
but our guesses were around the 100 mark for the whole thing. By the 
week before the ride the entries had soared to 170 and climbing! 
Thursday at check-in the numbers climbed to around 220 for the two days 
and when it was all said and done 202 horses started the combined rides 
over the two days making it one of the largest rides in the country. To 
say we were overwhelmed was an understatement but everyone kept their 
cool and put on their best problem solving hats and the result was 
smooth running affair from start to finish. Luckily the camp was big 
enough to accommodate the whole crowd and with the help of Tom Hagis 
everyone got parked with room left for more in the future.

About 6 weeks before the ride Don called a meeting and asked everyone 
what we would like to see in the perfect endurance ride since we were 
all riders. Superbly marked trails, lots of water, hay at vet checks, 
entertainment, good food were just some of the suggestions. Don took 
notes and I think every suggestion was filled and then some.

Tom Sites originally volunteered to provide the food for the whole ride 
but when the numbers swelled to gargantuan proportion Don hired the 
local civic club to provide the ride dinners and Tom concentrated on 
feeding the ever growing number of volunteers. He treated us to gourmet 
food at every turn. The local Fire Department also chipped in providing 
water for the base camp and acted as spotters on a very busy road 
crossing near the beginning of the ride. The volunteers came out of the 
woodwork for every job. Drag riders appeared from the Old Dominion, 
pulse takers from the SE and NE regions as well as the local community. 
Anytime there was a niche to fill it seemed that there was someone 
already doing it. After the ride some marathon runners even went out and 
pulled about 25 miles of trail markings for us!

Gina and I spent three days before the ride marking the trails with 
ribbon, arrows and signs so that nobody would get lost and nobody did! 
Thankfully some of the trails are permanently marked and we just added 
in turns and confidence ribbons on those segments so that when vandals 
removed about 4 miles of ribbon from one section the riders were still 
able to find their way. I went back and replaced the ribbon early in the 
morning of the second day and it stayed up that time.One amusing 
observation I made as I watched the horses pass different areas 
throughout the ride is how blind one can become when running at the 
front of the pack. The first few riders would come flying and blow right 
by a well marked turn as the ribbons brushed their face and I would have 
to call out to get them right again. After the first couple went by the 
rest could see just fine. The funniest incident was when I was spotting 
traffic at an old railroad trestle that was about 100 yards from the 
finish line. A top ten rider came cantering up and seeing me standing 
there said “I take it I turn left”, my reply was “You’re horse would 
HATE you if you turned left! The finish line is right there, straight 
ahead!”

Tom Hagis was in charge of setting up the vet check areas, which was a 
big job as we had three “away” vet checks for the 55s. Our base camp is 
perfect in every way with a big flat field, a scenic river and a kitchen 
except that it is a bit removed from the main part of the trail system 
requiring the remote vet locations. The trail to and from the trail 
system is so beautiful, though, that going the 10 miles in and out was a 
very enjoyable ride. Between Tom and Don the vet checks ran smoothly for 
the most part. The first day there was a bit of trouble at Vet Check #3 
as it is a narrow area and crews started parking on both sides of the 
road blocking it up so that passing through was nearly impossible. This 
posed a huge problem for the water trailer and the ambulance trailer as 
well as anybody who tried to get in or out. People were crowded and 
patience was wearing thin at times. Don, being the great problem solver 
that he is, devised a parking plan for the next day that had everything 
working smoothly again. The homemade ice cream that was served up at 
this vet check went a long way to calm any frayed nerves. Vet Check #1 
at Iron Mountain Horse Camp was everybody's favorite with lots of room, 
real bathrooms and ham biscuits available for breakfast.

The vets were skilled and plentiful as the best practitioners from the 
SE and some from the NE were called in to watch over the safety of the 
horses. Otis Schmitt was the head vet and joining him were Mike Bridges, 
Duane Barnette, Jeannie Waldren, Nicki Meuten (as if she didn’t have 
enough to do already) and several of Don’s vet students rounding out a 
great crew. Occasionally when a big group of horses would arrive there 
would be a slight backlog but with three kinds of hay, carrots and horse 
treats in the vet line the horses were wanting for nothing and were able 
to refuel as they were waiting for their examination.

One of the biggest challenges was providing water for all the remote 
locations. In addition to the three vet checks there were four other 
locations on the trail where water was provided. Bill Sluys proved to be 
the water boy extraordinaire, providing over six thousand gallons of 
water to keep all the locations full with some help from neighbor, Greg 
Dixon. Some local residents kept one of the hundred gallon tanks at the 
top of a mile long steep gravel road full. Once again fate smiled on us 
with the cool temperatures as Bill worked out the water plan realizing 
that with the large number of horses next year two or three separate 
water rigs would be needed especially if the weather turns hot. The fire 
department allowed Bill to fill up the water trailer at the station with 
their high powered valve saving a lot of time and making it possible for 
him to get the water out on the trail as quickly as possible. Anytime I 
asked a rider if there was enough water in the tanks on the trail they 
would report that they were full.

Gina Hagis drove one of the ambulance trailers and when a colicky horse 
needed treatment also volunteered to drive to Virginia Tech that night 
an hour away. Considering the numbers of horses, there were very few 
pulls throughout the weekend totaling less than 10%, most were for minor 
lameness. Laura Cullin’s husband, Chester, drove the other trailer and 
with two rigs there was very little waiting time for a ride back to camp 
for the riders and horses that were eliminated. We were all very 
relieved that the colicky horse was recovering.

The trail crew had spent months laying out the trail, measuring, 
mapping, clearing, marking, timing, tweaking and getting it as right as 
we could for the ride. A few of us had even pre-ridden it a month 
earlier in 95 degree weather just to make sure it all felt right. That 
day it took 12 hours to complete in a non-competitive situation 
including the vet hold times and with the extreme heat. Based on what we 
had learned about the trail we predicted that the finishing time would 
be around 6:30 – 7:00 as it proved to be a tough mountain trail. We were 
amazed when Jeremy Reynolds blew our trail out of the water the first 
day with a riding time of around 5:30! The conditions were as fast as 
they could ever be with perfectly dry trail and low humidity with 
temperatures in the low to mid seventies and nothing in the rider’s way 
but a few rocks and mountains. Even the large groups of pleasure riders 
decided to stay home that weekend and leave the trail clear for the ride.

The biggest theme throughout the weekend was smiling faces! I don’t 
think I saw any frowns all weekend, people were just having so much fun. 
The camp was beautiful, perfectly flat and right on the New River with a 
big rock face across the river to look at. After the ride the river was 
filled with horses getting their legs cooled off and kids young and old 
playing in the water. I noticed a few people even brought canoes to play 
with on the river. The dinner was served quickly with two food lines. 
The ride briefing was entertaining with Don’s masterful speaking style, 
which was heard loud and clear with the help of a sound system provided 
by Bill Sluys. Between dinner and awards on Saturday night old time 
mountain music was provided by our band, the Pilot Mountain Bobcats, 
fresh from a first place win at the local fiddler’s convention the 
weekend before. I don’t know how I mustered up the energy to play after 
the exhausting weekend but once I started the first tune I just got into 
the zone. The music added just the right touch of mountain culture to 
cap off a great weekend in the Virginia Highlands.

“Best ride ever!” was a comment I heard numerous times from the riders 
and volunteers as the weekend came to a close. The management team, 
although suffering from that “run over by a steamroller” feeling was 
bursting with pride on a job well done. Even before the last of the 
equipment was stuffed into our overloaded vehicles there were rumblings 
of “next year we can make _______ better” or “next year we can do 
______” so it looks like you’d better put it on your ride calendar for 
2009 because it will be better than ever and you won’t want to miss it!!

PS…. I was too busy taking care of the trail to take note of the winners 
of all the rides but I will post the results as soon as Nicki sends them 
to me.

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