Karen’s Musings & Endurance Ride Stuff

Not too long ago I blogged about the Mongol Derby – when I first checked out their website I thought wow, that sounds like fun!  Riders are going to ride 1000 km on Mongolian horses, racing 25 miles on each horse.  It sounded like a real adventure.

However, since then I’ve learned more about the race.  It is the making of another Catoosa.  There are few AERC riders that don’t know about the Catoosa Suicide Race.  In addition to the info below, I have this article stating that riders who lost a horse on the 25 mile race turned around and got on a  second horse for the 15 miler and lost a second horse.  It just goes to show you that you don’t have to go even 25 miles to kill a horse if you don’t know what you are doing and are riding an unconditioned horse at speed!  I have a hard time accepting that humans are that cruel and inhumane.  Not to mention stupid.

From Ridecamp archives: Lisa Dawes Brown wrote an article for “The File” in the September 1987 issue of EQUUS magazine concerning that ride (pg 29). She reported that the ride was called the Oklahoma Spring Ride, (June 13, 1987), and was near the town of Catoosa in the northeast corner of the state. The distances were 15, 25, 50, and 100 miles and there was an advertised purse of $20,000. There were 32 entrants.

For five weeks following the event, state law enforcement combed the territory surrounding the Chouteau National Recreation Trail for the bodies of horses that had died and been buried during the course of the event. The ride was held in 94 degree heat with 70 percent humidity.

Carcasses were exhumed near the trail used by the two shorter races. AERC pulled it’s sanctioning the day before the event because the race promoter allegedly refused to abide by the organization’s rules for monitoring the condition of the equine participants. His reported words to AERC officials were: “It’s my race and I’m going to run it how I want to. If you don’t like it, you can get the *&#^ out.”

AERC members then made plans to run a sanctioned ride 20 miles away at the Will Rogers Centennial Trail at Oologah Lake. There were no injuries or deaths at that ride.

At Catoosa, however, the riders were mostly young kids, going for the money, being cheered on by family members. One young girl in the 25 mile ride was reportedly being screamed at to bring her horse in at a gallop under the whip, even though her nearest competitor was a mile behind. That horse later died.

In all, seven carcasses were found buried and other horses probably died in transit home or in the days following. This ride was dubbed “The Disaster Ride” by the media and film footage of the backhoes at work digging up bodies was broadcast worldwide. It was one huge black eye for distance riding and AERC did a good job of standing up to answer the questions that followed. The point that those “jackpot races” were not endurance rides by AERC standards was driven home to the general public.

Organized endurance horse events in the United States and Canada are regulated by the American Endurance Ride Conference.  Each ride is sanctioned and must follow set standards of rules including veterinary care for the horses.  Horses must be a minimum of four years old to do 25 mile events and five years old to complete in 50 mile distances and up.  The Tevis Cup requires horses to be 6 years old to compete in that ride (100 miles).  Horses must also pass vet checks before, during and after each ride and are not given a completion if they are not judged fit to continue.  Fit to continue means that the horse is sound at a trot and metabolically stable.  To learn more about the AERC and endurance riding click here.

5'5" Edayot with Mongolian horse

The Mongol Derby has no such safeguards in place though their website does mention having veterinarians available if a horse is seriously injured.  I really fear for the lives of many of these horses.  This could be a nice event if the organizers decide to run it right and include veterinary safeguards and can guarantee that the horses doing this race will have access to water, feed, proper conditioning and will receive the same type of safeguards that my horse have when they compete in an AERC endurance race.

The horses being used range in height from 12 to 14 hands. The riders have a weight limit of 85 kg which is 187 pounds.  They can carry 10 kg, which brings the total to 95 kg or 209 pounds.  I wonder how much their tack weighs as there is no mention of that weight being included in the rider weight?  Temperatures will likely reach 95 degrees.  Ground temperatures are certain to be much hotter.

I don’t understand how logistically they can provide veterinary care for this many horses when they will be spread apart so far.  Especially in an emergency.  Riders may do the entire 1000 km in a week or they may take up to three weeks.  How will they have vets available over that large of a distance once the riders get more spread out?   Will they all be racing at endurance racing speed with these small ponies in extreme heat with too little water?  I have to ask – how many horses can each rider ride to death before they are no longer allowed to continue????

I would like to share more information on this upcoming race.  Please bear with me as there is a lot of information and it will be cut and pasted and will probably need to be posted in more than one blog post.

The Desolate Mongolian Steppe

Once you finish reading, leave a comment and let me know what you think.  Better yet, write to the organizers of the Mongol Derby and ask them to please run this event with safeguards for the horses.  Or,  click here to go to a petition that you can sign.  We don’t need another Catoosa!  The sport of endurance riding is quite safe for the horses when safeguards are present.  But when it’s not, it’s deadly for the horses.

I know that once a few endurance riders read some of this they will see that this is a disaster in the making by naive people who do not have the experience or skill required to keep these horses safe.  Look at the photo I’ve posted of one of the Mongolian horses – they are very small, not guaranteed to be conditioned and will be carrying adult riders in the summer heat without any guarantee of water at racing speeds for 25 miles.   This event doesn’t seem like so much fun anymore.

I am a member of the Long Rider’s Guild having ridden two horses 1925 on one continuous journey.  The LRG have put together two articles about this Mongolian Derby Race.  Click here to read their “Racing Into Trouble” article and dlick here to read the sidebar.  Please also check out the content on this Long Rider’s page.  Karen  (more later….)

From one of the Mongol Derby participants:  “They’re providing us with these yellow brick trackers, so we can activate the emergency beacon if our horse is injured and we can’t walk it in,” said Reddy. “The only other time you’re supposed to activate the beacon is if you feel your life is in immediate danger. There’s only one emergency medical helicopter in all of Mongolia.”
Food and water will also be an obstacle Reddy will have to contend with during the Mongol Derby. There’s no guarantee there will be food available at the horse stations, she said.
“We’re still looking into the food options,” said Reddy. “They’re going to give us GPS locations to the wells, where we’ll be able to get water, and they don’t guarantee that the wells will have water. They want us to be careful because there are packs of wild dogs that surround those wells. We’ll be carrying UV sticks to sterilize the water. You can only carry 10 kilograms of weight with you.”
http://www.aikenstandard.com/LocalSports/0609reddy

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