After a whirlwind weekend filled with so much rental car driving, heat and sun and dust and smiles and amazing horses, I have so many thoughts and emotions swirling around. I’m not the fastest of processers, and I usually do so through writing (or, more lately, while cranking out miles on the treadmill in the work gym). I can’t talk about Tevis without touching on…well, a little bit of everything, so here goes.

I feel like the current iteration of the Tevis Cup has to walk a bit of tightrope just to exist. It’s billed as “America’s Toughest Endurance Ride” and justly so! Many a trip has been attempted via horseback over the Sierra Nevada’s, and not all have lived to tell the tale. The realities of the current course, that it must be run in high summer, under the Rider’s Moon between late snowfalls, trail work, and early snowfalls, with past fires stripping shade from steep canyons, means horses and riders are tackling it and the toughest parts in the hottest part of summers which are just trending hotter and smokier every dang year. You could say it’s the Olympics of American endurance, so it’s not for the average horse and rider team. And yet. It’s a dreamer’s ride, in some aspects. Who else but dreamers would pour their sweat, their money and their mighty horse’s efforts against such a trail, with that one rock just out there waiting to end your ride?

A few of my friends, people whose horsemanship I trust and respect, are asking, “When is such a feat too much to ask of our horses?” When does that combination of heat, of steep canyons and rocky cliffs and endless climbs and long hours too much? Who would risk their horse on tricky trails in the darkness, clinging to the saddle for a roller-coaster ride your horse can see but you can’t? For the trail doesn’t care about changing modes of horsemanship and ethics and protocols; the wilderness waits for us all, to tell the truth of our knowledge and preparation and hardiness, just as it always has. The difference being, no one toes the line at Robie Park at 5:30 that dusty Saturday morning alone.

Each rider has their noble steed, carefully and painstakingly conditioned and prepared and fussed over for years before a Tevis entry is sent in. More hours have been spent in discussions revolving around feed, supplements, hoof protection, saddle fit, heart rate, heat tolerance, every aspect of that horse’s demeanor and needs picked over and addressed in all the ways offered by both modern science and woo and everything in between. The same goes for the rider; gear tried and tossed and tweaked, a smorgasbord of food laid out to cater to stomachs over 100 mile day, a gamut of emotions and check lists run through and over and around again and again.

For each horse and rider pair, there is a small town’s population of people to support them. Each rider brings 1-6 people (or more!), Nascar pit style crews to support them at the various vet holds; each checkpoint has it’s own dedicated volunteers, from the head volunteer for that check to the radio crews and the veterinarians, helping their riders keep the horses safe and making the tough calls when needed. There are Sweep Riders with radios and first aid gear behind the last rider; Sheriff and vet and helicopter rescue crews standing by all day and into the night; town folk with hoses as participants ride by; a committee for every aspect of the ride, from safety rules to veterinary support to traffic control. And that’s just for ride day! The amount of work and wrangling permits and volunteers and trail work and registrations and even just the porta-potties is an immense amount of work, most of it done by volunteers.

For me, having spent all day in the sun handing out hay to crews and directing the rider traffic at Robinson Flat (while my son was with the out-check team and my friend Rachel pulsed horses) I’m more fired up about Tevis than ever. Yes, it’s tough, yes it asks everything you and your horse and your crew have…but tackling those mountains together is still a worthy adventure. It can be done with the same level of safety and care of any endeavor we try with our horses, from packing into the backcountry, to rodeos to three day eventing. However, we do need to keep our eyes open, to be willing to listen to questions and adjust protocols as needed. Due to earlier incidents, some type of bridle and breast collars are required, and this year there was plenty of ice available at various spots; the trail through the Granite Chief Wilderness has been slightly rerouted; the heart rate and veterinary parameters and cut off times have been adjusted over the years; a higher pull rate and an extra check an hour after completion in Auburn catch issues before they can become catastrophic.

The rider is required to have 300 miles of endurance rides under their belts to send in an entry; it would be an easy and worthwhile thing to require the same of the horse in some combination of endurance miles, Pioneer Rides, 100 milers or heck, even require the Tevis Education Ride. Another idea, to accompany the miles in the saddle, is the Tevis Cup Committee could host webinars for perspective riders, talks by past finishers, with details for the coming year and tips and tricks to take the best care of yourself and your mount over the miles.

The fundamental challenge of 100 miles from Tahoe to Auburn, one horse, one rider, in 24 hours is still a worthy one. Look how many horses have made it onto the Robie Cup, which takes five, five complete trips to accomplish! The Tevis Cup is not a buckle every horse and rider team should aim for (neither, arguably, is the Old Dominion Ride, the so-called “Beast of the East”, which is pretty much Tevis with good ol’ Southern style humidity). Tevis does and should stand for those of us dreamers who can back it up with all those years of effort and thoughtfulness and yes…a few healthy risks to meet the challenge along the way. Tarma and I may not be ready to toe the line at Robie Park by next year, but we’re still aiming that way and boy, do I have plenty of work to do!

Work to do, and this is where we’re at…how much closer will we be with 11 months of dedicated effort?