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Mischievous Bay Horses by Karen Chaton Jan 2012 Pretty bay horses come in all shapes and sizes, Shy and adventurous, full of surprises, With a misshapen halo and Mischievous grin, Mine pulls out the stall mats and moves the feed bins, Shakes every bucket and rattles each pail, He carried me through history on the Pony Continue reading Mischievous Bay Horses This was how the first day of the 2011 XP started. We rode as carefully as we could and managed to get through the entire 2040 mile ride! This is Chief with Nannette's horse Wizard. What a ride season I have had. I was just looking back at this post from last year when I listed my goals for the 2011 ride season. Here is an excerpt where I discuss why I was Continue reading 2011 Ride Season Comes to a Close I was good and got all of the year end results put together for XP and posted on the website. Yay! So without further ado, here they are: 1) Overall Rider Results for XP & Sunrise Ranch Rides 2) Overall Horse Results for XP & Sunrise Ranch Rides If anybody spots an error, let me know. Congratulations to everyone who participated this year! Next I’ll put together a list of the Gold, Silver and Continue reading Year End XP Stuff Karen and Bo, Grand Canyon XP 2011. Photo by Steve Bradley. Karen and Bo, Grand Canyon XP 2011. Photo by Steve Bradley. I’ve been trying to get these photos posted for the last couple of weeks! The first two at the top were taken by Steve Bradley. You can see we had a really gorgeous ride this year. The fall colors were spectacular and as an added bonus we even got to Continue reading 2011 Grand Canyon XP – Photos & Ride Report We had a most excellent ride this year at the 5 day Bryce XP. We headed down early to help with trail, as there was a severe blow-down of trees on the trail. It took a lot of work to get everything cleared and the trail marked so that horse’s could get through. The FS, Dave Rabe and Dwight, Ann and Dave Nicholson all really worked hard chainsawing and clearing trails. Kerry Redente and Continue reading Bryce 2011 XP – 2 days made for 16,000 miles, yay Bo and Cheefy! I wrote this many years ago and thought it was worth sharing. To learn more about endurance riding, visit www.aerc.org Karen Since I began endurance riding about 10 years ago I have been asked many questions. Many of these questions had to do with which rides do I like best, how to do something and in general things you could find in a book or by trial and error. Recently, I had the Continue reading So you want to be an endurance rider? I haven’t had time to devote much time to this blog. I had a great time on the 2011 XP this summer. I wrote a journal during the trip, which is here (from that link, click on my name – Karen Chaton). I had the most amazing trip riding Granite Chief and Pro Bono 2040 miles on the Pony Express trail, from St. Joseph, MO to Virginia City, NV. It was some adventure. We Continue reading What I did this summer (so far)  Photo by Steve Bradley. Stephanie wrote me about the honor of having Hadji receive the Arabian Horse Association Distance Horse of the Year Award. Since it’s inception, they have chosen some really nice horses to receive this award, including my Cheefy. I think it’s a great award that has been given to horses that really go the distance and I’m happy that several of these horses have belonged to friends of mine. It’s also kind of cool that Chief won it the first year I pulled his shoes, and now here is Hadji showing that multiple horses can really go the distance without the need for nailed on shoes. From Stephanie: “Hadji has competed in Endurance consecutively for 11 seasons now. At 18 years young he has accumulated 5810 endurance miles and is still going strong. Over the years Hadji has won many regional, national, breed awards and the XP gold medal award in 2006. Stephanie and Hadji are a decade team. Hadji has a impressive endurance record with 116 finishes out of 119 starts with 90 finishes in the top 20. Half of Hadji’s endurance rides he has finished in the top ten. Hadji is a testament to the Arabian horse breed’s athleticism, consistency, stamina, and durability. Impressively 5300 of Hadji’s endurance miles were completed after he was 12 years old. Stephanie believes what has extended Hadji’s career and also the main reason he is still competing today is because he is barefoot and competes with boots. Stephanie transitioned Hadji barefoot in 2007 and is not looking back. Stephanie explains how Hadji’s movement, stride, attitude and recovery has improved dramatically since being barefoot. Stephanie wants to thank the Arabian Horse Association for this special award and looks forward to continueing with Hadji’s endurance career as long as he still shows his enthusiastic and forward attitude of going down the trail.” Continue reading Hadji Wins 2010 AHA Distance Horse of the Year When I shared my endurance horse longevity post on FB, a friend asked this question: “Karen you obviously have WONDERFUL horses – but what thing or few things have you learned thru the years that have helped your amazing record? I bet I know most of them but would love to hear from you what you think are the top 5 most important things you think you have learned to help longevity of your Continue reading My Longevity List by Karen Chaton I wrote this in early 2001, printed it out and put it in my binder for the ’01 XP ride and I don’t think I’ve seen this since then, till last night. My grandmother is now gone, so reading that part was really hard. Her father (my great grandfather) rode a horse from Oklahoma City to New York and back twice, and from Oklahoma City to San Francisco, CA. Grandma’s family Continue reading I want to be an XP rider….. |
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