Welp, it’s one thing to publicly declare a goal (“I didn’t say it, I declared it”), another thing to put in the work to get there. I won’t lie, as soon as I decided Tevis was a goal, I immediately doubted and questioned and…procrastinated. Tevis 2027 is a hella long ways away…but not as the preparations to get there are determined.

The first hurdle Tarma and I have to pass is actually qualifying for Tevis…or for the Education Ride, which is my ideal first stop. Tarma and I both need just one more 50 mile ride completion to have 300 endurance miles, which means rides of 35 miles or longer, we do have 125 additional miles together but those don’t count for Tevis. I want to choose a tough, high elevation (changes/climbs) and hot ride to test ourselves on. We could go out and rock through an LD tomorrow (provided I gave her a trace clip), but I need to take us out for a 13-15 mile spin with climbs to see if we’re 50 miler fit. If we aren’t, we have until April to leg us both up. The first ride I see that fits our schedule, as we’re doing a fun trip to Utah in early April, is the Nevada Derby outside Reno. It’s out of our PNER region, so would be the longest haul I’ve asked of Tarma. She’s a seasoned enough traveler now, especially with my rig. It’ll be early spring in the high desert, so probably not super hot but will potentially have wild temperature swings. Has anyone done this ride and can let me know how it is overall?

Beyond the official qualifications, there are those “invisible” or at least not on paper requirements we’ve got to work on. Thanks to a particular mountain ride we did with a friend last year, I know we can handle cliffs just fine. We’ve completed a ride in the dark so I know we can move out at speed and survive in the bear filled woods together, and I had enough steam to take care of her at 4 in the morning. I need to be able to tighten up my time management around vet checks, while still ensuring she has enough time to refuel, as she can be a slow eater until 40 miles or so. A huge component of our winter work is focusing on Tarma’s emotional control. I’m doing my best to avoid over bitting her, as the J&S Ultra Hackamore she’s in for trail rides has been working for over a year…but I don’t have quite the precise breaks I’d like to have when she’s on a roll, especially around other horses. I know she has the capability to control her own speed when I ask, but it’s not automatic or her first response yet.

Just as much as the heat in the bottom of the canyons, I worry about the Tevis start and the first five miles until everyone can spread out a bit. The timeframe of the start is tight! The time between when the trail opens and the cut off for being out of Robie Park is only 15 minutes, and there could be anywhere from 110-250 horses bottlenecking out onto the trail. Tevis uses a “Pen Start” system, where the top competitors (those who qualify at a higher level) are in Pen 1 and start first, everyone else in Pen 2 and the later/slower folks self-selecting to Pen 3, depending on the amount of entries. Reading other folks accounts of those first few miles can be wild; it’s done in the dark of the morning, along a tight, rough stretch of road, faster than we’ve ever gone in a group, surrounded by horses that were declared fit enough to go 100 miles over the mountains. It’s a perfect recipe for a certain spicy chocolate mare to dump all her energy into trying to catch the leaders and flagging before we even make it to Watson’s Monument if I can’t insist she listen to me.

For my part, I’ve been successful in sticking to the Sweaty Equestrian workout program, and after two steady months of at least three workouts (and three rides) per week I’m slowly starting to see some benefits. I’m up to running 10 minutes without needing a walk break (on the treadmill and only at 3.8-4mph, but it’s a start!) I’m able to up the weight I’m using for strength training, I can post for longer, and bonus: I can ride in my tall riding boots! They don’t have any ankle support so I couldn’t manage more than walking rides in them (I was riding only in hiking boots), but I was able to do a 9 mile ride with trotting and cantering without any weakness or soreness. My riding signals are getting more precise, though my right side still struggles not to grip and cling on the right lead. I haven’t lost any weight yet, but just getting into the routine of exercise was the first step.

So as not to get totally lost in the grind, on Monday I headed out to the pasture and just hopped on bareback and let Tarma take us for a grazing stroll. She likes to stick to eating in one spot for a few minutes, then marching away to find another spot, eat, then march. She loves the grass that’s in the middle of the seasonal pond, so marched her way over there…only to find the seasonal pond is now full of water, covering her favorite food. She would have swam her way to the middle, but I objected to getting soaked in December. Two miles bareback is still a good workout for me at least!