Endurance Riding

It is difficult to describe the feelings I am feeling right now. There are many who, looking in from the outside, did not see the effort, the trials, the tears, the doubts, and the great fear that I have experienced in the last few years. And there are many more who know little of my life before Asali, for before her, I was a girl searching for a direction, but constantly losing my way. JayaMae is not my given name, you know. It is a name I gave myself. It has great personal meaning and I adopted it at a time when I wanted to leave behind a very painful past and take on a metamorphosis. I shed my skin, picked myself up, and moved my family 500 miles away, to begin a new life. That is when, quite by accident, I found Asali. What I have discovered in the last few years since we have entered into a partnership and taken on a sport I never thought I would endure – endurance – is that I am the same girl, in the same brown skin, that I was years ago. The only difference is that I have found a strength within myself I did not know I had before. I have learned to believe in myself.

Endurance is a sport that stretches beyond just knowing how to ride. It requires a true partnership with an animal ten times your own size. It is a sport that challenges your very core — physically, mentally, and emotionally. Endurance taught me to overcome the elements of the backcountry, to learn to be alone and comfortable in silence, to trust my mount and to trust myself. It taught me to take things as they come, that the best fun in the sport is when, despite a fall or a runaway horse or getting lost on the trail, you can smile through it all and keep riding anyway. The rides we did not complete forced me to reevaluate my training, my riding ability, and my horse’s ability. It was each non-completion that taught me that change is okay. And it was in those failures that I was hit with something very valuable, in the name of humility. Every ride, even those that are successful, somehow humbles me, for it is more than my own talents that get us to the finish line.

This last month has been especially meaningful to me. Jakob and I attended the Lake Sonoma 50 mile endurance ride on November 1^st. Jakob rode his horse, Beauty, and I rode Nicole Chappell’s horse, Savannah Knight, a gorgeous part-Friesian mare. Since I met Nicole, a well-known and very successful endurance rider, at the Tevis educational ride a couple years ago, she has been someone I have looked up to, taken advice from, and watched for on the trail. When she offered her horse to me for Lake Sonoma, it was a touching compliment, and while I was nervous about managing someone else’s horse, Savannah and I successfully completed the ride. It was Savannah’s third 50-miler, and I hit my 1,000^th endurance mile with her. It was a fun ride, being out there with my son on a beautiful day, and I gained a lot of confidence riding a horse I knew next to nothing about. Nicole had said something vital to me just days before I picked Savannah up for the endurance ride. You know how to ride. Those simple words made me realize I just needed to trust myself. Often times, the only thing that holds us back is our own self-doubt.

This past weekend, Jakob and I attended the 3-day Gold Rush Shuffle Pioneer Ride. Although I took a rider option at mile 27 on Zaza the first day, Jakob successfully completed 55 miles with Beauty. And then he went on to finish Days 2 and 3, with me and Asali. Jakob, my 12-year-old son, rode his mare all 3 days, completing more than 150 miles. He was one of only a small few who completed all 155 miles on the same mount. And he did it on a rescue horse, an Appendix mare who stands at almost 16 hands tall. Jakob smiled through the mud and the rain, slowed down when he needed to, dismounted and walked to give Beauty a break on Day 3, and he galloped on a loose rein, allowing Beauty the freedom to run when she asked him to let her fly.

Jakob is the only equestrian to have competed on Beauty, and he put most of her conditioning miles on her himself. There were times I doubted that Beauty would ever make it past a limited distance ride, but Jakob never doubted her. He believed in her and he believed in himself. Witnessing their partnership, trust, and hard work brought tears to my eyes as they crossed the finish line on Sunday. Jakob and Beauty are now in West Region Standings for the Junior Division. Asali, my little Missouri Fox Trotter mare, and I are in standings as well, in the Lightweight Division, after completing three 100-mile rides this year. We finished this season far surpassing my original goal and I learned more from my own horse, my son, and his horse than I ever thought possible.

As we move into the next ride season, this little grasshopper (as one of my many mentors fondly calls me), has just a few small words of wisdom for anyone who has a dream:

• Believe in Yourself. Self-doubt will destroy you faster than anything else, but when you simply believe, you are one step closer to reaching your goal.

• With a Lot of Hard Work and Determination, Anything is Possible. I mean that. Four years ago, the 100-Mile Tevis Cup ride seemed like such a HUGE feat. And here I was, trying to complete it on a non-Arab, knowing very little about the sport of endurance. But I kept riding. I competed. I trained. I read. I researched. I trained. I trained. I trained. I failed at my first attempt. I reevaluated. I trained. I trained. I trained. I pictured crossing that finish line. I played it out in my mind over and over again. I trained. I tried again. We finished.

• Be Patient. Everything takes time. Rejoice in the small victories and recognize how each one is getting you closer to your ultimate goal.

• Attitude is Everything. Don’t fall victim to fears. Laugh at your failures and keep going. Those who refuse to give up eventually see success. After all, when you’re at the bottom, there is nowhere to go but up.

• Enjoy the Journey. Because when you’ve reached your goal, you’ll realize it isn’t over yet. And you may just travel beyond your wildest dreams…

Tags: AERC, endurance riding, endurance training, tevis cup

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