The Twenty Eleven Ride, Part 7

This is the third of three articles that I wrote for Endurance News after the 2001 XP ride.  This one was about the accomplishments of the horses and riders.  It was pretty amazing when you think about it.  Here is an excerpt:

230 horses were ridden 67,400 AERC miles by 104 riders in eight weeks. That works out to 1,348 fifty mile rides. This in itself is quite amazing, given that there are a few regions in the AERC that don’t contribute this much mileage over an entire year.

2001 XP Accomplishments

by Karen Chaton, Copyright 2002
Part 3 of 3

There were so many great accomplishments on this summer’s 2001 Pony Express ride by both horse and rider that it’s not easy to pick any one as being the best. Was there a winner? There were lots of winners. Everybody who enjoyed riding the trail and had a great time was a winner. The most common goal, by far, was the desire to ride the Pony Express trail. During the course of the two month event riders and crews alike became like a big close family and worked together to achieve these goals. Everybody wanted to help each other within this tight knit group. Friendships and bonds were formed that will continue to draw these people together for the rest of their lifetimes.

All told, 230 horses were ridden 67,400 AERC miles by 104 riders in eight weeks. That works out to 1,348 fifty mile rides. This in itself is quite amazing, given that there are a few regions in the AERC that don’t contribute this much mileage over an entire year. The ride started in the Central region and went thru the Midwest, Mountain and West regions, traveling thru Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. Riders attending came from Canada the Southeast, Central, Southwest, Northeast, Northwest, Pacific South, Mountain and West AERC regions.

Kayla Ramsdell and Gem

Four juniors rode a considerable amount of mileage. Most notably Kayla Ramsdell who was the only rider to ride the entire 2,000 miles of trail. She rode two horses 25 miles each one day so did not get AERC credit that day. To top off such an extraordinary accomplishment, Kayla completed the Tevis Cup ride the following weekend, on her horse Memphis Gem who did 750 miles at the XP. Her brother, 12 year old Troy, also completed Tevis after riding 1100 miles on the XP, on his 600 mile XP horse, Qwest. Jamie Mitchell, 14, rode her horse Lancelot 1,000 miles on the ride. The youngest junior was 11 year old Calina Nicholson who completed 950 miles on her three horses Kaibab, Splash and Boomer.

Carol Crawford and Energizer

The award for “Best Performance” was awarded to Carol Crawford and Energizer. They received a beautifully tooled custom saddle donated by Anne George. Together, Carol and Energizer completed an amazing 1650 miles, or 33 out of the 40 fifty mile days. Their longest stretch without a day off was 15 consecutive days, or 750 miles. Incidentally, John Parke and Skoldjur also had a stretch of 15 consecutive days, and a second one of 12 consecutive days. No other horse even came close to this record of successfully completing that many 50 mile rides in a row. Skoldjur completed 1600 miles, and is an Icelandic. Energizer is a Mustang/Arabian.

Other riders who rode a single horse consecutively for five or more days were: Trilby Pederson 400 miles on Beau, Jamie Mitchell 350 miles on Lancelot, Phyllis Bartholomew 300 miles on Ahlschwede Merab, Kathy Thompson 300 miles on LS Zane Grey, Vonita Bowers 250 miles on Sunny, Bonnie Way 250 miles on Miles and Calina Nicholson 250 miles on Boomer.

As a regular in the Pioneer Standings, it was no surprise that Phyllis Bartholomew rode every day except the one day she took off to take a horse home. Ahlschwede Merab completed 1,050 miles, Rushcreek Gunny 600 miles and Rushcreek Hadda 300 miles to make up the 1950 miles Phyllis rode.

There were only a handful of mules, with Shawn Bowling’s Doc Nelson completing the most miles by a mule: 600. Shawn’s mule Romeo also did 100 miles, and he rode Miss Scarlett O’Hara 200 miles. Terry Nance’s mule Bennie did 400 miles, and Penny Scribner’s mule Juliette completed 200 miles.

There were many stallions on the ride, representing a variety of breeds. One of the highest mileage horses with 1,150 miles, LS Zane Grey, an Arabian stallion ridden by Kathy Thompson, also racked up a remarkable 12 best conditions. Joan Zelaney rode her Morgan stallion Indiana Red River 500 miles, and Jas Shearsen-McMahon rode her Akhal Teke stallion Astrakhan 400 miles. Patricia Henslee’s Arabian stallion HCC Solzar +/ completed 300 miles. Sands Dickson-Spear did 100 miles on her Arabian stallion Allexxii, and Dublin Hart rode her Arabian stallion Chinook 50 miles.

Dean Jackson completed 750 miles on the ride. He was forced to take off due to an injury to his foot. His wife, MJ, rode 1900 miles of the trail on 3 horses. Between the two of them, they had four horses with the following mileage; Belesemo Tradition 850, WH Northern Jabeau 850, Eden’s Bay Rum 800 and Belesemo Ballero with 150 miles.

Several riders came to the ride with two horses. Of those, ten riders rode their two horses 750 miles or more. Patty Gaglioti rode Zynsation and Hollywood 750 miles, Jeff Herten rode RD Famus and Fadwah’s Hot Walker 850 miles, Stephanie Teeter did 900 miles on Jaziret Bay Musc and Great Santini in the 4 weeks she was at the ride. Anne Sands rode her two Namrahs and W.K. Mistral+ 900 miles, Jas Shearer-McMahon rode Astrakhan and MV Moondancer 950 miles. Sandy Skinner rode Scarlett Pride and Cassandra 1,050 miles and Debby Lyon did 1,100 miles on Malik and Arcade. Jamie Mitchell rode a second horse and brought her mileage total up to 1,100 between Lancelot and Fire Mountain Smoke.

Now we’re getting up into even higher mileages for one rider on two horses. Trilby Pederson rode Exclamation A (Clay) and Beau 1500 miles. Pat Verhuel’s two horses, Razznan and Prince Shabar completed 1,600 miles with her and Razznan did another 100 miles with husband Bob. John Parke’s two Icelandics, Remington and Skoldjur carried him 1,750 miles. My own two horses, Rocky and Dream Weaver did 1900 miles split evenly between them.

Club miles were accounted for by ride management, so that if riders did not want to ride 50 miles or just wanted to ride shorter sections of trail (not part of the AERC ride), they could and that information can be found at: www.xprides.com (or click here)

What is so special about this group of horses is their ability to do something extraordinary, and do it so well that it became ordinary for them. At least 9 of the top 10 mileage horses have gone on in the two or three months following the end of the XP to complete additional endurance rides. This is quite an accomplishment and a tribute to the ability of these horses and their riders to keep them going strong and sound, mile after mile.

Multiday rides emphasize that the rider is responsible for their horse. This point is not taken lightly, and when you are in the middle of nowhere riding point to point it is really driven home. This is one of the reasons why there were so few problems with horses on the XP ride. Everybody put their horses welfare first. Horses are ridden with the idea that they have to be sound not only today, but tomorrow, and the next day and the next. This ride had very few problems with horses; less horses were treated on this forty day ride than are often treated at just one single one day ride. The safety record of this ride, by mile ridden versus horse treatments or problems, is by itself an amazing achievement and something the riders, crews, veterinary staff, and ride management can be proud of.

Words cannot express the gratitude and appreciation this rider has for the opportunity to participate in such an incredible event. I would like to thank Ride Management; Ann and Dave Nicholson, DVM, Lavone Booth, Ashley McKnight, Joseph Johnson, Millie Arnold, Linda and Barney Fleming, DVM, Michelle Shaw, DVM, and everybody else including all of the riders, crews, and volunteers that gave 110%. Thank you to the 2001 XP Sponsors as well: Sundowner Trailers, Inc., Spring Tie, Lovell of Mack, Anne George Saddlery, EasyBoot and Supracor.

Disclaimer: These results were provided to me by Ride Management, and may or may not contain errors.