Tevis: Roush claims Haggin Cup

Richardson wins first Tevis Cup, Auburn's Hall takes second in his 25th Tevis finish

By: Todd Mordhorst,
Journal Sports Editor



After a solid 16 hours on the Western States Trail Saturday and into Sunday morning, the top Western States Endurance riders celebrated Sunday afternoon at the Gold Country Fairgrounds.

In a festive awards ceremony, Michele Roush took home the coveted Haggin Cup. Her horse, Cayenne, was judged to be the most fit horse among the top 10 finishers. Roush, from North San Juan, just slipped into the top 10, taking ninth and her mount won a very close vote among the Haggin Cup judges.

"I just try to ride the horse for what that particular horse has," Roush said. "Yeah, there's always a thought in the back of my head that if I can get in the top 10, I'd like to show for best condition."


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Jas and Bilbo go the distance

Henry Hoskins
Monday, 25 July 2005

Endurance riding is a tough, demanding sport, racing a horse over an 80 or 160 kilometre course.
Starting in the wee hours of the morning and with four vet checks required during the race it certainly isn't for the faint hearted.

But Jas Carfter loves it.

"What other sport can you ride through the mountains and watch the sunrise," she said.

Crafter recently returned from the NSW State Championships in Manilla where she placed second in lightweight division on Neroli Mitchell's horse 'Bilbo'.

Starting at 2am in the morning Crafter rode for 10 hours and 52 minutes to qualify for the Tom Quilty, the most prestigious endurance event in the country.

Over 70 riders turned out for the event competing in four categories; lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight and junior riders.

Carfter became involved in the sport four years ago through friends Neroli Mitchell and Peter Cooper.

"This was my first 160km race, previously I've only ridden in 80km races," she said.

And Crafter says she'll be a definite starter in the Quilty in Queensland next year.

The sport requires a good understanding of you horses health.

"Obviously you have to listen to how your horse is going," she said.

"Your horse has a vet check the day before the race and four during it so if your push it too hard you'll get vetted out.

"Myself and Peter (Cooper) are just always careful to listen to how the horse is travelling.

"Towards the end of the race I was with the leader but Bilbo was doing it a bit tough so I pulled him up to scratch around to eat grass for about half and hour."

Crafter says Arab horse are generally the best breed for endurance racing due to there slow heart rate and slow muscle twitch.

She generally competes in the middleweight division which she says is more prestigious but rode in the lightweight for Neroli Mitchell to get racing points for 'Bilbo'.

"I'm wasn't sore after the race because you have to be riding them everyday so they are nice and fit," she said.

"You don't just go straight into a 160km race, you build them up over a period time running them in 40 or 80km races."

The sport doesn't have a high profile but has been going since the 1970's according to Crafter.

"There's no other sport like it," she said.

"There would be a race on every weekend around the state but you don't really hear about it.

Going the distance is its own reward

Going the distance is its own reward
No shame in Tevis Cup finish for back-of-the-packers

By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer
Sunday, July 24, 2005 10:50 PM PDT


Rider John Matthews finds a spot to sit after finishing a problem-plagued final stage of the Tevis Cup trail ride. Matthews was Sunday's final finisher. Photo by gus thomson/ Auburn Journal

The glory of finishing the 100-mile Tevis Cup endurance ride was escaping John Matthews as he sat hunched on the dirt floor of Auburn's McCann Stadium infield before dawn on Sunday.

Seconds earlier, his legs had buckled and the Manhattan, Kan. rider had dropped to the ground while his horse was being examined by a veterinarian at the finish line.

Matthews had made it. He'd get the silver buckle to show he'd ridden the Tevis trail - 100 miles in one day. But just barely.

Matthews and his horse, Knight Legend, completed the arduous trek through the Sierra to Auburn as the clock ticked down the final second on the 24-hour deadline for finishers. Nursing a bottle of Sierra Nevada beer soon after his dramatic drop to the ground, Matthews joked that the ride had been a "piece of cake," but the pinched expression on his face and forced words betrayed troubles on the trail.

"It was kind of a long trail ride," Matthews said, in deliberate understatement. The 69-year-old Midwesterner will go down in the record book as the 51st Tevis Cup ride's final finisher. The fact that Matthews and his horse finished at all turned into a testament not only to inner reserves of grit and determination but the willingness of others to help a fellow rider in trouble on the trail.

Matthews was on track to finish the ride with minutes to spare. But after he dismounted near No Hands Bridge at the American River Confluence about five miles from the Auburn finish line, things went terribly wrong. His horse bolted up the trail, leaving Matthews nearing the end of the ride without a mount.

"My saddle was slipping," Matthews said. "He got away from us and went down the trail. He wanted to go home."

One of the oldest riders in this weekend's competition, 80-year-old Jim Steere of Petaluma, soon approached and temporarily put aside his own plans for the final ascent up the walls of the American River canyon to the Gold Country Fairground to help Matthews find his horse.

Minutes later, Matthews' Wesob was found about a quarter mile up the trail. A rider farther along had caught the horse and tied its reins to a tree.

Steere continued on, to finish seconds after 5 a.m. - and 15 minutes ahead of the 24-hour cutoff. Matthews struggled up the same route and beat the clock by the slimmest of margins, marveling at the help he received from the octogenarian Good Samaritan.

"I didn't think I had a chance," Matthews said. "I don't believe I'll be riding when I'm his age. He's a marvel."

With little over a half-moon to guide them, the final finishers in the Tevis Cup ride suffered no shame as they made their way into McCann Stadium. They were far from stragglers. In fact, the flow of finishers was relatively steady as the riders who had slowed their mounts and timed their trek finished at their own pace.

Decatur, Texas rider Jonni Jewell arrived at the finish on Hank at 4:46 a.m. Jewell said that with no mountains to speak of in Texas, she brought her horse out to Southern California in June to get ready for the 17,000 feet of climbing it would face. The extra work paid off, with Hank stumbling on occasion over mountain trails but going the distance.

"It was tough on him but he's tough - amazingly tough," Jewell said.

Dave Rabe, of Carson City, Nev., celebrated with a Miller High Life at the finish line. Along the way, he was quaffing gifts of tequila, beer and wine from onlookers to help fuel the journey.

"People out there are really nice," Rabe said. "If you're conservative and pace yourself you have a chance to finish."

Rabe finished with about half an hour to spare - no disgrace in his books.

"Who cares if you finish 20th or last?" he said.

Tevis first-timer Logos Hall of Altadena logged a finish 10 minutes before the ride's official shutdown.

"I started getting nervous (about finishing) this afternoon," Hall said. "We did one vet check at a time. There were some stumbles but she got right back up every time."

Before an official finish, there was a final veterinary checkup at the stadium and then a chance to make a celebratory loop around the infield to the finish line. By 5 a.m. no one was in the stands to cheer on the finishers. Some took the victory lap with smiles denoting the victory they had achieved over the heat and rock-strewn dangers of the trail. About 250 horses and riders were signed up for the annual trek. Less than 90 finished.

Veterinary checkpoints along the route could make or break a rider's chances for a buckle.

With glow-lights the only signs of their movement along the trail, riders filed in to the Lower Quarry veterinary checkpoint as the final hours counted down. They were met by veterinarians like Chico's Jim Edwards, who has been volunteering for the ride for 37 years. At that point, veterinarians have to make tough calls on whether to keep a horse in the ride or pull it. Five horses were pulled out at the Lower Quarry checkpoint during this year's Tevis Cup competition, including two-time champion Potato Richardson's Garcon - a leader at the time and on track for a possible win.

Edwards said Richardson's horse had fallen farther up the trail and when it rolled over, suffered shoulder cuts and a bruised muscle that left it favoring a leg. Riders know that veterinarian decisions are final and several horse doctors can be brought in to explain in detail why the call to take a horse out was made, Edwards said.

"Usually they're very convinced that we're very convinced," he said. "Potato took it well."

Navaho Nation: After the dust settles

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

Enduring temperatures of over 100 degrees, reporter Kathy Helms had to lead Buddy through the bottom of Navajo Canyon after he broke his bridle

WINDOW ROCK ? Tom Robbins said it best in his book, "Still Life With Woodpecker": "It's never too late to have a happy childhood."

Bearing this in mind, I set out for the 10th Annual Navajo Nation Council Ride which left from Navajo Mountain Chapter House on Monday, July 11, with a do-or-die attitude.

I spent Sunday night camping under the stars with my tent-mate and lead wrangler, Stephanie, 11. We oohed and aahed at the clarity of the Milky Way and talked about the fact that stars are actually different colors though distance makes them appear white. Excitement kept us talking way into the night. Also, we were having trouble adjusting to the sound of horses chewing hay and banging on water buckets

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Tevis Trek Goes Hi-Tech

Ride's tone changing from cowboy hats to molded saddles, GPS

By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer
Sunday, July 24, 2005 4:05 AM PDT

Jogging his horse DWA Sabku into the Foresthill checkpoint of the annual 100-mile Tevis Cup Ride, Christoph Schork, of Moab, Utah, wears high-tech sport clothing and a helmet as opposed to the cowboy attire used in the early years of the 51-year-old ride. Photo by Karina Williams/Auburn Journal

The Tevis 100-mile endurance ride is more than just one rider, one horse these days.

In its 51st year, the ride this weekend is a parade of high-tech equipment far removed from the 1950s and 1960s, when riders in cowboy hats, boots and western shirts spurred their mounts on the trail.

Many of today's horses sport saddles padded with the same shock-absorbing materials runners pound the pavement with in the soles of their shoes. Their horseshoes can be just as much a plastic composite as steel. And for several years now, Tevis horses have been guzzling electrolyte drinks similar to Gatorade, as they make their way from Robie Equestrian Park, south of Truckee, to Auburn.

High in feather-light, injection-molded saddles, riders' cowboy hats have been doffed in favor of lightweight helmets, padded and protective trail-running shoes have replaced cowboy boots, and running tights, shorts and sweat-wicking shirts from the endurance running world have replaced the jeans and pearl-buttoned Western wear of yore.

For many horse-rider teams navigating the twists and turns, ups and down, and heat and cold of the Sierra, a global positioning system and heart-rate monitor are standard equipment. And canteens have given way to plastic bladders with flexible straws strapped to the back of riders.

Pilot Hill's Steve Elliott was on the sidelines during this weekend's Tevis Ride, but as owner of Equine Performance Products he's on the cutting edge of many equestrian innovations. Elliott's working with a design factory in Italy on a new, high-tech saddle and was one of the early champions of GPS and heart-rate monitoring for horses.

"It's like an onboard black box," he said.

Elliott sees opportunities in the future to increase nutrition. Horses, like their human counterparts, are already gulping down glucosamine to strengthen and rebuild cartilage.

But when the starting line is staring a rider in the face and a horse is prancing in the first light of dawn to set out, all the accoutrements of the modern world take second fiddle to some basic tenets.

"It all comes down to good conditioning and luck," Elliott said.

That means some of the high-tech tools are finding some resistance from riders in an event that is steeped in tradition.

Three-time Tevis winner Hal Hall of Auburn, one of the veterans of the Tevis trail, doesn't use GPS but will strap a heart-rate monitor on his horse occasionally.

Like many riders, he's a purist on the trail during the Tevis - riding not only to test his own mettle and the endurance of his horse, but riding against the best equestrians the event has put on the route over five decades.

"I don't want to be regimented by a number," Hall said. "They can't tell us if our horse has a stomach ache or a sore foot."

Hall was trying something new on this year's ride - reflective clothing designed to keep the UV rays off the body.

Two-time champion Potato Richardson of Greenwood distances himself from the GPS crowd, who can track distance, elevations and temperatures with an onboard unit.

"When I go out, I just want to have a good ride," Richardson said. "When someone says 'How far did you go?' I say 'I don't know.' Instead of more gadgets, I want to get to know the horse."

Virginia rider John Crandell III, said he's played with the monitors and GPS systems but would rather be reading a twitch of a horse's ear than a digital read-out.

"When the metal hits the road, I'm a minimalist," Crandell said. "Sometimes the numbers can distract you."

Cool's Erin Klentos, another two-time Tevis winner, said that GPS is a benefit for on remote trails but in and around the Western States, she has no need because she's ridden those trails all her life.

"And I didn't inherit my mother's ability to lose her car in a parking lot," Klentos added.

The Journal's Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com

Tevis: And the Winner Is??

This year's Tevis Cup field is wide open as riders vie for the coveted Tevis and Haggin Cups Saturday

By: Todd Mordhorst, Journal Sports Editor
Friday, July 22, 2005 9:20 AM PDT

Jeremy Reynolds, last year's Tevis and Haggin Cup winner, poses with his horse CV Eli after winning the Haggin Cup last year. Reynolds returns to defend the Tevis Cup after sharing it with Becky Spencer in a tie for first place. Photo by Ben Furtado/Auburn Journal
Around 250 riders will line up with their horses for the 51st annual Western States Endurance Ride Saturday at Robie Park, near Truckee.

They'll be competing against each other for the coveted Tevis Cup, which goes to the first finisher, and for the Haggin Cup, which goes to the finisher in the top 10 whose mount is judged to be the most fit.

But mostly, the competitors will

be battling the 100 miles of rugged trail and a heat that will no doubt be

unrelenting in the deep canyons Saturday afternoon.

While there are plenty of riders with great credentials and hundreds of great-looking horses, there isn't a clear favorite for Saturday's ride.

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"I never go to win," said Debbie Lyon of San Luis Obispo, who's finished six times. "I'm going to wait and see what kind of day the horse is having. If he's having a really good day and things go right, I wouldn't mind slipping into the bottom of the top 10. That would be really nice, but the goal is to finish with a sound, happy horse."

Many participants at Wednesday's pre-ride barbecue echoed Lyon's sentiments regarding the heat. Riders from this area have had several weeks to adjust to the unusually warm weather.

They may not have a home trail advantage, but it seems that California riders have had a distinct home state advantage in recent Western States Endurance Ride history.

Last year, 19 of the top 20 finishers in the 100-mile ride hailed from California, the lone exception being Ali Kahlfan Abdulla Hamdan Al Jahouri from the United Arab Emirates.

Los Gatos resident Jeremy Reynolds tied for the Tevis Cup last year and took home the Haggin Cup as well. Ride organizers assured there will be no ties this year, or in the future, changing the rules after last year, which was the third tie in the history of the event.

Reynolds is back this year to defend his titles, along with his wife, Heather Reynolds, the 2003 Tevis winner.

Auburn's Becky Spencer, who tied with Reynolds last year, is not entered in this year's ride, but third place finisher Lila Abdul-Rahim is back with her horse, Clancey. Fourth place finisher Gabrielle Mann is also returning with her horse St. Patrick.

Auburn's Hal Hall, a three-time Tevis Cup winner and three-time Haggin Cup winner, will be riding Bogus Thunder after sitting out last year's Tevis ride. Ann Hall, Hal's wife, rode Bogus Thunder to a sixth-place finish last year.

Potato Richardson and Cathy Rohm Richardson, of Greenwood, are back in the Tevis field. Cathy placed ninth last year and she's back on SMR Fifi d'Or for this year's ride.

There are several husband and wife duos in this year's field, including Robert and Melissa Ribley, of Grass Valley. The Ribleys plan on riding together on Saturday.

"I think our horses travel better together," said Melissa, who finished Tevis as a junior rider in 1981 and has since worked as a veterinarian at the event numerous times. "Horses are kind of herd animals and they're used to being in their environment with their stable mates, so I think they'll do well together.

"We're looking forward to the challenge. I think it will be an extra challenge because of the heat, but we enjoy taking on the challenges."

Marcia Smith, a veterinarian from Loomis, was planning on riding a young mare this year, but her horse came up lame recently and she was forced out of the ride. But Smith, who has three Tevis Cups and one Haggin Cup on her resume, knows what it takes to do well at Tevis.

"It will be an interesting race because it's so hot this year," Smith said. "I think tactics will be key. I would probably go fast early, before it gets hot, and then go slower in the middle of the day in the canyons, when I'm afraid it's going to be exceptionally hot. And then I'd plan to go faster at night when it cools off again."

There are several international riders that could be factors in the race for the hardware. Last year, Ali Khalfkan Abdulla Hamdan Al Jahouri, from the United Arab Emirates, rode to an impressive fifth place despite suffering a broken arm along the way.

This year, Ali Al Muhairi, Abdullah Khamis Ali Saeed and Jaber Bittar will represent the UAE. Jacky Laurent, from Tahiti, adds a Caribbean flavor to the field. Peter and Penny Toft, of Australia will also ride and Peter is hoping for continued success after placing fourth in 2003.

"I'm interested in how Peter Toft will do. He's here from Australia with Murdoc (his horse)," Smith said. "They were here two years ago and finished in the top 10 and they're back here together."

Considering the scope of the field and the countless factors involved, predicting a Tevis Cup winner is a crapshoot. There has not been a repeat winner since Chris Knoch in 1994.

Cool resident Michel Bloch held a sizeable lead in last year's race at Michigan Bluff, but his mount came up lame at Foresthill and he was forced to withdraw. Bloch is back on the same horse, Monsieur Joseph, hoping for better fortune this year.

Chuck Mather, of Colfax, served as the Tevis Cup ride committee chairman, helping prepare for this year's event. He's also fit in time for training with his horse Dance on Hallani. The two have finished 12th, sixth and 10th in recent years and Mather is looking forward to Saturday's ride, despite the prospect of a very warm day.

"I guess we'll find out if he's a heat horse," Mather said.

One of the intriguing aspects of the Tevis Cup is the unpredictable nature of the event. As the ride unfolds Saturday, there are always surprises.

"I suspect it's going to be a typical Tevis year in that the early frontrunners might not be the first finishers," Smith said. "The tactics are going to be more important than ever this year."

Tevis: Riders from Far and Wide

By: Andrew DiLuccia,
Auburn Journal

More than a dozen international riders highlight Tevis field

For Madeleine Kirsch, once you've ridden the Tevis Cup, you have to come back for more. Even if that means traveling over five thousand miles to do it.

Kirsch is one of 14 international riders who's traveled the globe to be a part of the field of 250 for Saturday's Tevis Cup Endurance Ride.

The German native, who currently resides in Salzburg, Austria, is competing in her fourth Tevis Cup. She's finished in the top 10 twice, taking seventh in 2003 aboard Desha BL and finishing 10th in 2002 on Desha BL again. Last year, the 35-year-old Web designer took 37th atop Fausto BL.


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