Lindsay Graham and Monk Capture Top Honors at the American Endurance Ride Conference National Championship Ride

USEF Press Release
Release: September 24 2009
By Troy Smith

The premiere event of the American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC), the annual National Championship ride, proved to be a weekend of celebration in Northern California on September 11 and 13. At the site of the annual Patriot’s Day ride in Greenville, CA, competitors arrived from all over the western U.S. and Canada to compete for AERC’s top prizes.

The 100-mile championship ride, held Friday, was won handily by Lindsay Graham, a fourth-year veterinary student at the University of California at Davis. Riding Chris Martin’s seven-year-old chestnut Arabian gelding, Monk, Graham finished the technical course in nine hours and 58 minutes, 35 minutes ahead of second-place finisher Brad Green of Auburn, CA, riding Pawnee, his 10-year old Arabian-cross gelding.

“I was planning on just finishing in the required FEI COC time,” said Graham, referring to the International Equestrian Federation’s certificate of capability time of 12 hours and 20 minutes. “We passed people in the vet checks as Monk pulsed down immediately at every check.

“I kept a very steady pace all day. People always passed me downhill, but I passed them uphill, and let him canter on the flats,” said Graham. “He has a very easy big canter and his heart rate drops significantly.”

The win came as a surprise to the 27-year-old with 2,275 AERC miles to her credit. “The day just came together the way people dream of,” she said. “The ‘Monk man’ never slowed down. He gave me an incredible ride.”

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