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2009 Tevis Cup
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Steph's Stories
| The Whole Story: |  Part I , |
 Part II , |
 Part III , |
 Conclusion |
Merri's Stories
2010 Tevis: All Heart || 2010 Tevis: Mark the Trail and They Will Come
Crewing Tevis: Part I || Crewing Tevis: Part II || Crewing Tevis: Part III - "Gawd I Love That Horse!"
2010 Tevis Wrap-up
More Stories
Garrett's Haggins Cup Story || Western States Tevis Cup - Rusty Toth || My Tevis 2010 Story - Melinda Faubel
Hank Still Amazes Me - Jonni Jewell
2010 Tevis - 55th Running
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John Crandell riding Heraldic and Shannon Constanti riding the Crandell owned and trained LR Bold Greyson have finished first and second in the 2010 Tevis Cup ride. Tevis News Leader Board |
Barbara White receives her 3000 mile Tevis Buckle!
Photo Galleries by Merri Melde
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2010 Tevis Wrap-up
Sunday August 1 2010
Tevis: It is just another hundred-mile trail.
But there are some things about it that make you gasp and grab at your heart, clutch at your throat as the words choke off, and squeeze the tears out and make even a grown man cry.
Things like:
Watching a phenomenal horse like Heraldic float above the ground at the vet in.
The flowers someone put out on the trail where the horse died last year...
Crewing Tevis: Part III
Friday July 22 2010
...And now we wait. Our riders are out at 8:30 PM onto the California loop, from Foresthill heading to Auburn. In between are 32 miles of switchbacks, cliffs (slip-and-fall-and-you-die cliff trails), pitch darkness, moonlight, rocks, dust, maybe some hallucinations, that godawful forever-long never-ending 17-mile stretch to Francisco's, the American River crossing, and just maybe that last magical 4-mile stretch to the lights of Auburn and the finish line by 5:15 AM.
Our riders won't be in for approximately 8 hours. We pack up and leave Foresthill, and by the time we are pulling into the Auburn fairgrounds 20 miles away after 10 PM, I get a tweet saying the finishers will be in any minute. The finishers!
Bruce drops me off and I hoof it with effort (it's still warm and muggy in Auburn at night) to the finish line. I've already missed the finish, but I make it to the vets to watch John Crandell trot out Heraldic, and Shannon Constanti trot out LR Bold Greyson - and we have the first and second place finishers of the 55th running of the Tevis Cup - a feat Heraldic and John duplicated in 2006. Our riders, Nance and Steph and the Yosts will be over six hours behind the winners - a fact I found astounding when I rode it last year, because the whole 100 miles I felt we were riding so fast the entire ride. Any horse that finishes Tevis blows me away, so there really aren't words for winning horses like this. The next riders were nearly 2 hours behind them...
Crewing Tevis: Part II
Friday July 22 2010
Packing up and leaving the chaos of Robinson Fat vet check behind us, we had a somewhat leisurely 8 or so hours to set up at Foresthill (45 minutes by road, 32 miles by trail) for the second and last hour-vet check... and to wait.
After we found a sweet crewing spot for our 5 riders (a tucked-away corner shaded by trees, with room for both vehicles and all the gear!) - we drove off for a treat - the real reason, I'd told Nance, that I was crewing for her: In N Out Burger in Auburn! The closest In N Out Burger to Idaho is Reno. No way I was passing up this opportunity! Fortunately the Yost crew I was riding with (Chris, Kara, granddaughters Burkleigh and Kennedy) wanted it as bad as I did. Did we really deserve such a heavenly treat after our crewing-challenged Robinson Flat affair? Sure we did. We hadn't had anything to eat since 8 AM. We picked up a burger for Bruce, who had shuttled John and Susan Favro to Auburn to get their own pickup.
Back at Foresthill, we'd just missed the top two riders going out - John Crandell and Heraldic, and Shannon Constanti and LR Bold Greyson (owned by Crandell), who were 40 minutes ahead of the next rider, Rachel Shackelford and BR Cody De Soi. (Rachel ended up getting pulled here.) The next riders were an hour and 15 minutes behind them.
it was hot. And humid...
Crewing Tevis: Part I
Thursday July 21 2010
...And I came to crew.
It all seemed so easy. I'd crewed for endurance riders before. I crewed for international rider Charisse Glenn at the West Selection Trials in June. Heck, I'd crewed for myself before. I know how to crew. Everybody says it's hard, but how hard could crewing Tevis really be?
6 crew people for 5 Idaho riders. Only 2 vet checks, at Robinson Flat and Forest Hill, 1 hour each. Two bags each for Nance and Steph, one for each vet check, and a 'go everywhere' pile; one bag and a small ice chest for the three Yosts to both vet checks (the bag was big enough and heavy enough to carry an extra horse!).
We had set out the gear in the correct piles the night before. All set, ready to load in a car and a pickup in the morning.
It all went to pot from there...
2010 Tevis: Mark the Trail and They Will Come
Tuesday July 27 2010
There's nothing easy about the Tevis trail. It's a hundred miles of rock, dust, elevation, uphill, downhill, (approximately 19,000 feet of climbing and 22,000 feet of descending), tall mountains, plunging canyons, rivers, wilderness, heat, humidity, effort, and luck - good or bad. You can never relax or let up. You have to keep on the move, and fast, for 100 miles, despite the rocks and boulders and bogs and cliffs and weather and fatigue. It's an arduous ride for a horse and rider.
They come for many reasons: for fun, for the challenge, for the beauty; to test their horse or themselves; to finish, to win, just to try; to party, to conquer fear, to conquer the trail.
Joyce Sousa and her daughter Jennifer Neihaus came for the challenge. 17-year-old LV Integrity (Ritzy) and Joyce finished the Tevis in 2001 (19th place) and 2006 (6th place); 15-year-old MC Gallantly (Gallo) and Joyce were pulled from the Tevis in 2005...
Western States Tevis Cup - Rusty Toth
Tuesday July 27 2010
We began the walk to the start a mile down the road in pen one: 70 horses packed together three to four wide and as deep as you could see in the morning twilight. The tension and excitement made the air thick with energy. Farrabba AKA The Stoner is the kind of horse you trust to always be relaxed, even keel, a true gentleman. I would not see this in him until mile 95.
The mass arrived at the start line where the trail funnels into a two horse wide path with seven minutes to go. As we stood shoulder-to-shoulder Stoner transformed into a ball of fire. At 5:15am the trail was opened, the horses moved like the sand in an hourglass onto the trail and the bucks began. The next ten miles was the most frightening yet thrilling I’ve ever experienced. I am thankful to have tucked him behind Stephanie DuRoss while Stoner continued to canter sideways as the trail began to narrow to single track while my heart was in my throat.
2010 Tevis: All Heart
Tuesday July 27 2010
Tevis: there's a bit of magic in the air, if you're lucky enough to grasp it. Sometimes it all just comes together perfectly: the timing is right, you suddenly have a horse ready, you suddenly know Now's The Time.
With the Tevis Magic, the trail doesn't intimidate you, the mountains don't defeat you, and that silver buckle doesn't elude you. Your amazing horse has carried you for a hundred difficult, challenging miles across that finish line in Auburn for the first time, the second time, or the thirtieth time. And somewhere along the way, you get the feeling, the knowing that you're going to finish with a sound, healthy horse.
That happened to me last year - everything fell into place on a Wednesday (when I never expected I'd ever ride the Tevis), and I was crossing the finish line in the wee hours of Sunday, and Julie Suhr was handing me my silver Tevis buckle Sunday afternoon.
Tevis - Packed and Ready to Go!
Tuesday July 20 2010
It's been a while since I've had to pack and plan for a big ride, and since I'm not taking my truck/trailer (THANKYOU NANCE AND BRUCE!) I'm really having to pack with purpose. Don't want to take too much (that one is already a joke) but don't want to forget anything (I hauled my stuff over to Carol's tonight since she's taking us to meet Nance and Bruce along the freeway and she asked where was my saddle....? oops).
So I have too much stuff, but is it the right stuff :)
This trip/adventure really fell into place, and it's been open doors since the idea popped into my head. Last week our oldest son Clay and his wife Wynne and 2 1/2 yr old grandson (!!) Cameron, spent several days with us. It was a lovey visit, Cam loves to be on a horse with his Dad, and wonder of wonders Clay said he thinks he might want to do endurance! (omg). He did lots of riding when he was younger, jumping and all that stuff, and joined me on my first ever endurance ride back in 1991 (we switched horses half way through because his appy was lame and I let him finish on my arabian - duh, no completion but fun still). But I was totally shocked when he wanted to go out for a ride. First ride was pokey, and he survived. Second ride I put him on Batman (superhero fast) and I rode Rhett, and John rode Sunny (aka Robin) and we had a fast and fun 10 mile romp around the desert. The horses were amazing...
TEVIS TWEETS
Images by Crysta Turnage
Slideshow by Melissa Margetts
July 15 - Well just 10 days left. GULP! I've been waffling back & forth for weeks but just decided that we really ARE gonna go for the third buckle. Cabo's last 100 miler. I'll be asking a lot of him. I won't be able to get off to run downhill or "tail-up" the steeps. I can't mount like normal from the ground. But Cabo has been learning to lie down for me to mount in case of emergencies. It's hard on him so we are saving it for emergencies on the trail only and RM said they will try and have things to mount from at the vet checks. I have a scabbard on the saddle for my cane. This will be hardest one yet for us. I decided that I need some extra (light ) crew or rig transport help (any takers?) but I have done most of my 100's (except the two Tevis's) & and all my 50's Cavalry style without any crew before though. If I bring two crew bags and could have one dropped off at Robinson and one at Foresthill with electrolytes, zip locks of feed, glow bars & a change of clothes that's good enough for me. I put this slide show together to try & EXPLAIN Tevis to some of my friends & family out here who think we're NUTS. It is a good slide show for those who want to know what it's like , riders who are doing it for the first time as well as those who have already done it . We're gonna hit the road on Saturday and begin the epic trailer ride. Send good thoughts our way.......Gulp..... - Melissa Margetts
Tevis! - Steph Teeter
On an impulse, this morning, I decided to enter Tevis. On my super (to me) horse Jaziret. Everything fell into place, in an instant.
I can hitch a ride with Nance and Bruce. Merri was already going along to help Crew. The last ride I did with Rhet (June 24) it was hot and hilly and we didn't go fast but he was incredible... the vet even gave him a few A+'s on his vetcard. If we finish he'll get his 5000 mile medallion there. Garrett is going to glue on boots....I just filled out the form and sent it in. woohoo!
Steph
POSTED: JULY 12, 2010
* -As of now, the trail is clear from Robie Park to Lyon Ridge
... and from Dusty Corner in to the finish.
-Work is being done from the River to Hwy 49 today (July 12, 2010), cleaning up and clearing back brush.
-Then clearing from Red Star to Lyon Ridge and from Robinson over Little Bald Mt both areas on Wed. Both areas have been under snow until this latest heat wave.
-There is a crew going over to work on California Loop on Thursday.
-The River is passable before noon these days, watch your timing as it rises for the rafters.
POSTED: JULY 11, 2010
* The 2010 Education Ride Results are posted and a posting from Ride Management. Here is a comment about this year's ride:
Hi Terry,
Thanks to you and Kathy for all your hard work in putting on the Educational ride. Also much thanks to all of your vets, cooks, volunteers, and especially Greg for hauling the water. Our group was very thankful for it at Francisco's and after making the climb back up to Foresthill. I also really enjoyed listening to the talks from Melissa, Debby, Lori and it was a special treat to hear Sharon Saare. We all learned allot from their knowledge and experience.
From where I was, leading the last group with my great partners, Shannon and Steve Hallmark, everything seemed to run super smoothly. We had one horse in our group that lost some easyboots and was a little uptight being in the pack, but he lined out well coming into White Oaks. He and his rider had completed only one 50 miler this year, so they were both very inexperienced. Unfortunately, they were pulled at Todds Valley for lameness. I think they both learned allot though. The girls from Texas were a little intimidated by the trail, but of course they had never seen anything like it. Both of their lease horses made them feel safe. We were a little slower because of the time it took our 12 horses to water, than what was scheduled for us, but I think we still finished up close to the time Kathy figured out for our group.
I thought the changes from last year, having (3) leaders, color coded groups, designated spots at the vet checks and the 10 minute interval timing to start all worked really well. I really liked making the loop back through Todds Valley. It was a good alternative and a good choice.
I will not be able to attend the upcoming board meeting on July 17th. I will be available after the ride if you decide to hold your meeting there. Thanks again and congratulations on running a successful event. Can't wait to hear about your trip to Australia.
Connie Creech