Tuesday Aug 8 2006

The 100-mile Tevis Cup was a sight to see! I got back home late Sunday night, back to work early Monday morning. I still haven't had time to unload my truck or get a decent night's sleep. I know it's possible to doze while riding a horse, because I've done it before. I also think it's possible to doze off while hiking, because I just about did it today. Maybe I can catch up on sleep this weekend...

But anyway, here's the Tevis recap. More stories and many pictures at http://www.endurance.net/rides/2006tevis/.
 

"Tevis - Just Another Trail Ride"
August 4
It’s like one big trail ride… or is it? If you can forget there’s almost 200 horses and riders here, you can’t miss the atmosphere – there’s a little something extra here at ridecamp. A little more excitement, a little more activity, a little more nervousness maybe… at the ride meeting, everybody listened to the speakers, and everybody cheered when each speaker concluded with, “See you tomorrow in Auburn.”
196 humans and horses will wake up about 4 AM in Robie Equestrian Park on the Western States Trail tomorrow – if they got any sleep at all – and, about an hour later, in the dark, in the dust, in the chaos and excitement, they’ll face west and start heading 100 miles down the Tevis trail.
There’s the young (7 junior riders) and old riders, young and old horses (oldest horse is 26), first timers and 27-timers, the rich and not-so-rich, the scared and not scared, locals and foreigners (3 riders from Japan, 1 from Canada, 1 from Australia, 1 from England), fast riders out to win and slow riders out to just finish; they all have the same goal in mind: McCann Stadium in Auburn within the next 24 hours.
A few statistics to keep in mind: there’s approximately 19,000’ of climbing and 22.000’ of descending to contend with. Just over 50% are likely to reach the finish line. Auspiciously, the temperatures have fallen from the killing digits they were just over a week ago, so the hot canyons will be a bit kinder to horses and riders.
I had to ask the question to a few people: Are you nervous?
The answers:

“Yea, a little nervous.” (Tom Noll on Frank ; it’s their first Tevis)
“Heck no. I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be fun.” (Nick Warhol on Forever Dawn GA – Nick’s completed twice; it’s Don’s first 100)
“I’m scared. There’s some hairy places out there on the trail.” (Quenby Dunlap on RC Lazeer – Quenby’s 3rd attempt; Buzz’s first Tevis)
“No! I never get nervous. I’ve been riding horses my whole life – it’s just another trail ride.” (Robert Ribley on Riptyde)

A few people to watch:
Bill Maiche on Holy Smoke. Bill was told, after his terrible car accident in 1982, where he spent 26 months in the hospital, that he’d never ride again. He’s here today for his first Tevis on Holy Smoke, the oldest horse in the ride, at 26. If Bill and Holy Smoke finish, Holy Smoke will tie the record as the oldest horse to complete Tevis.
Seiichi Hasumi, from Japan, riding Fames Baydal BL, has completed Tevis 3 times in a row and is going for number 4. He plans to one day own 10 Tevis buckles.
Quenby Dunlap is riding her crazy horse RC Lazeer (Buzz). She must have nerves of steel to ride this horse on this ride.
Barbara White on JAL Sebastiano is going for her 28th Tevis buckle.
Wild West, or “Willy,” fell off the Tevis trail 3 years ago – fell 500 feet down at Kaput Springs (the trail at the spring went kaput; the spot is also known as Willy’s Falls) and survived. You can still see his scars. Willy and Don Bowen are back to try again, along with Pam Bowen and Whyatt, 3 time finishers.
Tom Noll and the ever popular Frank (who was once maybe Wayne Newton’s horse), Idaho’s Tough Suckers, are Tevis first timers.

The 52nd Tevis Cup begins!

August 5
I skip the dark start, with their new method of starting the 200-odd horses. They are grouped together in 3 groups and walked in a hopefully somewhat orderly manner toward the starting line, so there isn’t a pile up there.
Robinson Flat, the first 1-hour vet check, is like a weekend at Disneyland. The narrow forest service road is lined with cars, ‘Main Street’ is full of people. There’s a frantic unloading of equipment, as most vehicles have raced here from Robie Park soon after the 5:15 AM start. Vet check gear piles up along the road with people and grows by the minute, as the first two riders come barreling into Robinson: Potato Richardson and Kenneth Keele. They take about 15 minutes to pulse down, however, and the rest of the top ten are not far behind: Joyce Sousa, Marcia Smith, Kassandra KiMaggio, Dennis Tracy, Heather Reynolds, Michel Block, Shellie Hatfield, Chuck Mather.
The crowd grows as does the festive atmosphere. People, horses everywhere, coming, going, hanging out in the sun or shade, eating, resting. It’s a pleasantly cool morning in the high Sierras under the sugar pines. The horses should have a bit easier ride with the cooler weather… unless the riders are tricked into riding harder.

Quenby, who would have been coming in up front, has already been pulled. Buzz went slightly lame behind.
Nick’s horse Don  is doing so well “His CRI was 44-44” he’s almost giddy and in disbelief at the same time. Don does not look like he’s been 30 miles.
Tom Noll and Frank are cruising steadily along  and having a good time.
Mr. Hasumi from Japan’s horse is doing well, and he’s got a smile on his face.
Barbara White and her horse are both doing well and having a good time. The White and Suhr crew are rooting her along and helping crew.
There’s no sign of Bill Maiche as I leave, when most horses have arrived at Robinson. I hope he’s still going well!
I’m off to Forest Hill, a long but easy ride along the ridges 20 or 30 miles, while the horses and riders head for the canyons…

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"The End - Tevis"

August 6
What happened to Bill Maiche indeed! Next year maybe there should be the Good Ol’ Guy or Gal Award given out at Sunday’s awards. I suggested to Bill that he was the hero of the ride. He brushed that comment off with, “Well, I don’t know about that…” in his slow drawl. I asked for details but he brushed those off, too, so I got the gist of his adventures from his friend and crew Toni.
Bill and Holy Smoke were trottin’ down the Tevis trail having a good time Saturday morning, just another horse and rider of about 200 others when, somewhere between Mile 1 and Robinson Flat, Bill and Smoke became sainted knights in shining armor. One lady rider was having big trouble getting an easy boot on her horse, what with all the other hundred or so horses going by, so Bill stopped to help her with that. Later on, Bill came upon an injured rider – the rumored injured junior who broke her thumb. Bill stopped to help her with that situation, which took a fair amount time. During this time, Bill ended up taking over sponsorship of this junior – of course she wanted to continue riding - and another one, a job he was pleased to do. With all the time those events consumed – and you don’t want to dawdle on the Tevis trail – that was why Bill rode into Robinson with 3 minutes to spare till the cutoff time. With that close timing, Bill and his two juniors didn’t make it by the cut-off time to Michigan Bluff, so they were pulled.
I asked Bill if he had fun anyway. “Well, yea, I did. But if I had everything to do over again, I would have done the same thing. Those juniors – they’re important to the sport. They’re the ones going to be riding 10 years from now.”
Bill was eager to have me meet Holy Smoke. “You want to see him?”  He led me to the stall where Holy Smoke, a little plain dark bay arab with the lower half of his face smeared with a good breakfast, stuck his head over to the door to greet Bill. Bill’s hands are damaged by the accident he had back in 1982, and as he fumbled with the halter, Smoke stopped everything else he was doing, including chewing, to lower his head into the halter , and he held it there until Bill got it buckled.
Bill foaled out Holy Smoke 26 years ago – you can see the great fondness they have for each other. Bill doesn’t really live anywhere – he and his horse are pretty much vagabonds, living on the trails together. Did I mention that he and Smoke, back in the older days, were champions – at reining, cutting, western pleasure, and Smoke is sure enjoying himself now at endurance. Maybe one day they’ll top this sport too…
Eighty-seven riders finished Tevis, out of 196 starters – only a 44 percent finish rate.
Nick and Don finished right about 4 AM, and Nick just could not express how much he worships his horse. “You know how when you go fishing, you usually throw back the fish? Well this one’s a keeper.”
Don Bowen’s horse, “Flying Willy” – the one who fell off the Tevis trail 4 years ago, completed his first Tevis with riding horse buddy Whyatt – Whyatt’s 4th completion.
Steve Workman finished with about 10 minutes to spare, though he wasn’t worried about making the finish. “We had it timed right. There were a few hard spots – like that last bit coming up out of that canyon from the river, it was dark. We didn’t have any moonlight down there. It was tough, but we had a good ride.”
Barbara White was pulled at Michigan Bluff. What a bummer, but I bet she is already getting butterflies thinking about next year’s attempt at Tevis buckle #28.
Seiichi Hasumi now has only 6 more buckles to go – he completed his fourth Tevis in as many tries. He still had that big smile on his face at the awards.
Tom and Frank (who was maybe Wayne Newton’s horse) – first time Tevis starters and finishers! I don’t know about Tom for sure, but his horse Frank has a growing fan club. When I took pictures of Frank trotting out at the Foresthill vet check, one woman crowded the ropes, leaning over, following Frank’s movements, like a swooning fan following a movie star – only this movie star has 4 legs. “Can you get me a picture of that horse?” “Oh, you know Frank? Isn’t he an awesome horse?” I said. Her eyes grew big and she nodded, “Yeah – I’m crewing for him. My friend and I told Tom we’d crew for him if he came here, because we really like his horse.”
Well, Frank did his usual great job, and Tom was very happy to go along for the ride on him. Tom confirmed it was a tough ride. “I think I’m giving him the rest of the season off. He deserves it.” I think that will disappoint many of his fans, but we hope to see Frank on the trail again soon.
I’d guess at least half of the human Tevis finishers each year get a little tear in their eye, or a catch in their throat, when they realize what they and their horses have accomplished. It is a pretty big deal to partner up with a horse that is willing to keep on going, over lots of rocks, up mountains and down canyons and back up canyons, and get you from Robie Park to Auburn, 100 miles away. Of the other half who pretend it’s no big deal, I guarantee you they’ll get a little more animated when they’re talking about this year when this happened on this horse, and that year when that happened on that horse. Get the old Tevis hands going, and I bet you can squeeze out a tear or two.
One special Tevis finisher today, Karlon Oliver, had a strong motive to finish, and I believe left a tear in the eyes of many in the audience. Karlon rode this year’s Tevis to raise money and awareness for Muscular Distrophy, a disease that her son has. “We should all be grateful that we are able to come here and ride these horses, because some people can’t…”
One more thing needs mentioning, and that’s the fine job that everyone does putting on the Tevis ride. A staggering 750 volunteers help with the ride – that’s bigger than the town I live in in the summers.
The date is already set for next year’s Tevis Cup: July 28. “See you in Auburn!”