Re: Quarter Horses (long)

["Drin & Jim Becker" <rainbow@montana.com>]

I got started riding endurance on a quarter horse , Copy Dilly Bars who was
double bred Three Bars and Peter Mc Cue breeding . A blue roan with lots of
leg and heart , I had been barrel racing and breakaway roping on this horse
for some years when one day my riding partners who some of you may know and
who of course rode arabs , Linda Voight and Janet Johnson started telling
me that no way could this arena horse do 25 miles , well then of course the
red flag was up and we entered a 25 miler the next week end . Now this was
when the 25 milers were still a flat out horse race (early 80's), I knew
nothing at all about endurance riding so I just figured that I would check
people out and pick someone to follow . I found a local rider who had done
well in endurance and stuck to his tail like glue from the start , followed
Burt , did what he did at the checks and figured when we were getting
towards the finish we were in about 9th or 10 place , well we come to the
top of this steep steep hill were you could look down at the finish line
and I'll be damned if there weren't all the front runners less than 1/4
mile from me and about a 1/2 mile from the finish all walking  and jogging
down this hill .So of course this gets me going and I kiss to Dilly and we
hit that downhill at full arena speed .By the time those front runners
lookled up at us it was too late . Dilly flat outrun them all to the finish
.I then went on to ride Dilly for the rest of the year in 25's , always in
the top 10 and for the next 3 years we did 50's almost always in the top
ten . By then I knew I wanted to do longer distances and knew Dilly was not
a top ten  75 or 100 miler horse . So he went back to the ranch work and I
went to arabs and part arabs .Dilly just died this last winter at the age
of 28 from a reaction to medication on a slight colic , first time he had
ever been sick in his life .So Linda and Janet , thank you for getting me
into this sport , even if it was on a dare !
                                     Drin Becker
                                     Mtn. Region









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