ridecamp@endurance.net: Pony Becomes a Horse

Pony Becomes a Horse

Oldwaggy@aol.com
Wed, 1 Oct 1997 17:51:28 -0400 (EDT)

Remington, the 13.3 hh Icelandic gelding, has now completed 1,000 miles in
AERC 50 & 100 mile endurance rides. Although Icelandics traveled accross the
country in the Great American Horse Race and the Pony Express in 1976, I
believe Remington is the first Icelandic to reach this milestone in regular
AERC competition. Many thanks to Terry Woolley Howe, Kim Fuess, Cherry
Stockton and others who honored Remington at last weekend's Manzanita
Endurance Ride by presenting him with a beautiful blanket embroidered with
words recognizing his achievement.

Many people have complimented me for completing this many rides on a
non-Arab. It should be the other way around. Remington deserves
congratulations for going this far with an utterly inexperienced,
middle-aged, middleweight rider, namely me. I only took up horseback riding
when I brought him home as the family Christmas present in 1994. We rode in
our first limited distance ride at the Precipitous Poppy in April, 1995. We
did our first 50 miler at Fire Mountain in January, 1996. Remington was
pulled at mile 50 of the Twenty Mule Team 55 the next month for owner
dumbness - I had been unintentionally starving him on an unsupplemented
bermuda grass hay diet and competing without adequate amounts of
electrolytes.

He hasn't been pulled since. We returned to complete the 100 miler at the
same ride this year. Remington has also completed some of the tougher SW
Region 50 mile rides like Bear Valley Springs and the Lakeside Classic, as
well as the first 3 days of this year's Fall XP. (He was ready for all five
days but I had to get back to the office.) I may have learned a little
during this time, but haven't gotten any lighter or younger.

Several quotations in justifiable praise of the Arabian Horse have been
repeated over this mailing list since it began. I would like to offer one
about another breed. In 1864, Jules Verne wrote: "I begin to think no
animal is more intelligent than an Icelandic horse. Snow, tempest,
impractible roads, rocks, icebergs - nothing stops him. He is brave; he is
sober; he is safe; he never makes a false step; never glides or slips from
his path."

This aptly describes Remington. We will probably never go very fast, but he
has shown the willingness to go any distance over any terrain at any time and
under any conditions. As different as he is, I believe he has earned the
right to be respected as a true endurance horse.

Me, I'll still call him a pony.

John Parke, Solvang, CA.

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