The Parrish family ranch was again the host site for the Armadillo
Endurance ride. The ranch is adjacent to the Davy Crocket National
Forest in East Texas and contains miles of beautiful trail in the piney
woods. The ride is sponsored by TERA a very active endurance riding club
serving Texas and the other states in the Central Region of AERC.
Ride manager Bo Parish sent the eight hundred milers out on the trail
at 4 AM in what would prove to be a very hot and humid day. The winning
rider was Benedicte Slee a Norwegian foreign exchange student who is
spending the year with CeCi and Darolyn Butler of Humble, TX. After
cutting her teeth on two 25's Darolyn convinced her she was ready to
tackle a 100. "Becky" started with Darolyn and was soon riding in the
front of her first big ride. Then horses and riders started to drop out,
Darolyn and Mary Fields pulled at 30 miles leaving Becky to carry on her
lead for the next 70 miles. Bad luck continued to plague the other five
riders who all eventually pulled by 10:30 that evening leaving little
Becky alone to disprove her words of earlier in the day "Oh, I can't"
as she finished in a respectable 16:13. Her horse Cassells Marcos was
awarded BC with a score of 725. While Darolyn who originally talked
Becky into the ride did not finish she was awarded the best 100 mile
costume for her Harlot Rider ensemble.
The 50 mile ride saw 24 riders take to the trails. Shelley Bridges from
the Trinity Riding Center of Aubrey, TX scored her second 50 mile win of
the season in a time of 7:03 on Fletch. Margret Ling - Faaji and Lynda
Corry - Baskhari were next to cross the line in a time of 7:22. The
remaining TT were Gillian Pearsall - Aris, Paulette Brehob - Kache,
Nicole Horst - Ramsey, Bobbie Barber - Kash, Hillary Zeigler - Bab
Sheeba, Jan Wright - Bab Terah, and George Nixon - Abby. Bab Terah
ridden by Jan Wright was scored Best Condition with a combined total of
643.5. The competition for best 50 mile costume was fierce; winners were
Lynda Corry as Zena Warrior Princess, Linda Laach as the Dragon and
Gillian Pearsall as the Queen of Endurance. There were 20 finishers.
A large field of 53 horses competed in the 25 mile LTD ride. DAF Bobbi
Sox ridden by Jennifer Noblin was first to reach criteria in a time of
2:52. Khristin Seymore riding Fire Pony was the first Junior in the
respectable time of 3:16. Shadrack from the CypressWoods Stable was
awarded BC with a score of 707.5. Shadrack was ridden by Mike Campbell
for Darolyn Butler. In fact, Mike liked him so much he ended up buying
Shadrack for his own. There were 37 finishers as a number of riders were
either overtime or pulled their horses as the dealt with the
unseasonably hot and humid day. The costume competition was also tough
in this division. Winners were; Donna Winter for her Cat Woman
rendition, Jim "Quarter Horse" Phillips as a Civil War Colonel [not sure
if he was blue or gray] and Lori Thornton as the Harley Rider.