I tried Tevis 15 years ago but we got pulled for a minor lameness at Robinson Flat. It’s definitely a serious undertaking but at the time I had a lot of confidence in myself and my horse and felt comfortable taking the risk. It’s not very common to have horses fall off cliffs but there are a lot of horses on IV lines at Foresthill and maybe other spots too (but this is the one I saw). I’m not sure if I would ever try it again as I get older and more risk averse and more sensitive to what I ask of my horses.
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appears to be no charge for the horse. Butte County Sheriff’s Department helicopter was used to airlift the horse from the canyon where was transferred to a trailer where then taken by Veterinary Emergency Rescue Team from UC Davis (who also supplied the airlift horse harness)
Veterinary Emergency Rescue Team from UC Davis-- This program relies on donor support and does not charge for its activities.
video of the airlift of the horse
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This is nuts.
Again, all for the human’s glory. Weird, and pretty gross.
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I don’t know which horse it was, but one of the four who fell off the trail has died at the vet clinic. That makes two horse deaths out of four falls.
The Tevis Foundation is partnering with the Western States Trail Running Association and the US Forest Service to analyze and improve the trail.
I used to aspire to ride the Tevis. My probably unpopular opinion these days is that, since horses do not choose to do the Tevis, I would run the trail rather than ride it. If I were still fit enough.
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They have issued some information:
In part:
"> The WSTF BOG will work to improve emergency response with faster and more effective strategies. The horse-rescue teams WSTF contracts with will be on-site, stationed along the course and focused in areas identified as higher risk. We will also stage rescue equipment and provide veterinarian support to all rescue efforts. Our standard helicopter and ambulance infrastructure will continue to be on call.
> We will survey the trail and identify areas that are most in need of repair. Working with our partner, the Western States Endurance Run, and in cooperation with two primary agencies – Auburn State Recreational Area and the US Forest Service, we will review every foot from Last Chance to Francisco’s with the goal to improve the trail bed – widen it, stabilize the base, and remove obstacles as much as possible – specifically for horse safety. The higher risk areas will be prioritized and we’ll attempt to complete them as soon as possible."
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Looking at the photos, unless they plan to use dynamite there’s no fixing some of the really rough riding on that trail. There’s no real reason to put a horse through that, other than “because I can”.
I thought endurance used to be “for the horse”. Guess that’s not the case anymore.
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that may be a Pandora box of unlimited problems as
The Forest Service Outdoor Recreation Accessibility Guidelines (FSORAG) and the Forest Service Trails Accessibility
Guidelines (FSTAG) are the legally enforceable standards for
facilities, routes, and features within the National Forest System.
FSTAG applies to all trails in the National Forest System that
meet all three of the following criteria:
• Are new or altered
• Have the Federal Trail Data Standard (FTDS) designation
designed use of “Hiker/Pedestrian”
• Connect directly to a trailhead or to a trail that currently substantially complies with the FSTAG
https://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/pdfpubs/pdf15232812/pdf15232812dpi300.pdf
In the early 1990s I was a civilian advisor to the US Forest Service to help devise ways to improve the government lands accessibility…we had to comply to standards for new or improving current trails that included every one … a rocky ledge could not be removed or altered without review then what ever was done had to comply to the compete standard
we rode Competitive Trail rather than Endurance … primary difference is (or was at the time) that competitive trail’s goal was to teach you how to care for yourself and your horse so both came back unharmed.
Our horses were sissy horses who were being shown nationally in Class As we were using trail as a break in their training.
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I was out at Tevis in 2015. At that time, the helicopter insurance was $50. I bought it.
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Don’t forget that a large part of the failed completions include those who simply went too slowly, those pulled by vets for failing the CRI or showing an uneven gait or a reluctance to trot out, those riders who decided not to continue at some point (for whatever reason), those held back by slower teams or rescue operations, those who slowed their ride to offer help to another rider, etc. Many of the situations that result in a failed completion would never occur in other equine sports.
Endurance is about completing a race with a horse that is “fit to continue” including those that have finished 100 miles. If at any point the vet doesn’t feel the horse is fit to be tacked up and ridden out on the trail again that’s a failed completion even if the horse is sound and finished within the time allowed.
Endurance has seen what happens when the course is made easy. It turns into a running race with horses literally run to death.
Failure to complete teaches the endurance rider things about their horse, their equipment, their crew management (care at the holds), and themselves. Riding long distances and finishing fit to continue demands the rider do a lot of things right, and the longer distances demand more fine tuning as something that is not an issue at 25 miles can become a problem at 50, 75 or 100 miles.
I’m not saying that nothing needs to change - far from it. I do think the Tevis trail should be made safer to drastically reduce the chances of a horse falling off the trail. I am saying that the failure to complete percentage is not directly comparable to other sports, and not an indication of any disregard for the horses’ welfare. A possible comparison would be the number of competitors making it to the jump off in show jumping. There is a desirable percentage - too many and the course is deemed too easy, only 2-3 and the course is too hard.
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Apparently one of the factors is, and has been, the overuse of bright white LED headlamps and crazy light wands stuck all over some of the horses. Horses end up being blinded by the lights and spooked by the glow sticks. One suggestion was to limit the use of lights to red spectrum only, which doesn’t interfere with the horses’ night vision yet allows the riders to see.
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Then let’s cap it at 50. Or break it into 50 one day, break… then the final 50 the next. What does the horse get out of the extra 50 miles? You think he enjoys traversing crazy trails in the dark? No, it’s all for the human, all for our glory. “Fit to continue” but how many are not? No problem, let’s go get another one.
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@RedHorses, totally agree that there are many factors for not completing, and fair point that non-completes may be lower in other horse sports because there’s not the same ethos of vet checks during competitions in other sports. But if you look at the Tevis results, ~60% who didn’t finish were metabolic or lame, with less than 20% ROs or OTs. It just seems like far too many, even when you compare completion rates and reasons for pulling to other 100 mile rides.
And unsurprisingly, in the FB discussion that Salty refers to about the role of the headlamps in these horse deaths, the majority of comments were “if you’re too scared to ride in the dark at night, don’t do this ride.” Not- why is this ride on a trail that has so little margin for error that if your horse is disoriented by a headlamp, death is a real possibility? Riders at the recent VT 100/Moonlight in Vermont (50) rode with headlamps and glow sticks, surrounded by ultramarathon runners also wearing headlamps and glow sticks, and no horses fell off a cliff and died.
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the history of the Tevis Cup goes back about a century to Will Tevis
Will Tevis, who holds the world record for riding 200 miles in about 10 hours and who in 1923 helped to defeat an Army team in a reenactment of the Pony Express ride from the Nevada border to the Pacific.
with the 100 mile being sort of a standard of endurance expectations as many other rides were set at the 100 mile distance long before the Tevis Cup of 1955
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You misunderstood my point. Riding in a 100 mile race isn’t something you can just go out and do. Riders start with shorter races and learn what their horse needs to finish fit to continue. They do the shorter races and adjust things for the next. Just as riders in other disciplines go to shows, fail to pin, and try a different warm up, a different bit, a different feed, a different travel/housing/tack/training/etc.
Riding 100 miles in under 24 hours demands better in terms of tack fit, horse and rider fitness, a dialed in care routine to keep the horse eating, drinking, peeing and pooping, under that ride’s conditions - which is a. separate learning curve. Barring the “prestige” type rider (found in every equine discipline), riders do not just “get another one”. Nor do they need to for the vast majority of unfit to continue. No more than the Hunter who is slightly lame in the jog, or the Jumper who went through a fence instead of over it is discarded in favour of the next horse.
Just like the top level of every other equine sport the horses must be willing and able. Just like every other equine sport the less willing/able may still compete at lower levels.
It’s difficult to understand what goes into Endurance riding without being part of it. Yes, this is true of many disciplines. The location of the competition “arena” does add some risk (and my previous post did note that I do think some changes are in order for the Tevis trail) that isn’t seen in other disciplines. There’s a difference in the level of fitness and soundness required at every step, overseen by vets throughout the competition, from that of other disciplines.
I’m not articulate enough to explain it well today.
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Exactly! It’s not the distance or the dark that’s the problem.
The Tevis trail is not only difficult, but the weather extremes are compounded by the terrain making it largely impossible to quit anywhere other than the checkpoints. Which puts a lot more stress on the horse that needs to pull out, and affects teams stuck behind them, potentially sending some of those horses into distress when they otherwise would have been okay.
ETA as I noted in previous posts I do feel the Tevis trail needs some work.to make it safer.
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trying showing a horse on the Kentucky county fair circuit when they had the amusement rides set up next to the ring…or the worse was I think it Huntington WV where you had to go under the running roller coaster to get to the ring …after that a helicopter could land next to your horse without it even noticing
This really does NOT represent the mindset of endurance riders I know. A dear friend has completed Tevis more than 10 times. She has ridden the same horse for many years (Current horse is in year 12 of competition and just recently finished in the top 10 at the AERC National Championships @ Old Dominion). Hardly a case of throwing away horses and getting another. A badge of honor for these riders is to have a “decade horse”. Don’t see many of those in some other equine sports. Looks at the ages of these horses out on the trail. Many are beyond the age where they would be showing in other disciplines.
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Riders on east coast trails have certainly gone off the cliffs. One of my colleagues spent the night on a ledge keeping a horse stable so they could airlift it out during a ride in Virginia. It is also unusual to have a horse go off at Tevis. This of course was a very tragic year. I’m still baffled by what caused the one horse to go over the edge. He was an experienced horse and she was an experienced rider, it was not dark and she wasn’t even on the horse. The trail is difficult, I’ve ridden parts of it, but it is not any more difficult than some of the technical trails I’ve been on in other places.
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As someone who used to vet distance rides, you couldn’t be furtheer from reality for the overwhelming majority of riders.
I rarely had to “pull” a horse at vet checks–all I had to do was squint, and the rider would be all over me, “What’s wrong? what do you see? Should we pull?”
In fact, at the first endurance ride I vetted, a well-known international level rider came through the vet check. At the time, the lameness criteria were not as rigorous as they currently are, and this horse was maybe a Grade 1 (inconsistent, hard to see) anyhow.
Rider said, “what do you think?”
I started to say, “Well, if he was my horse…”
Rider interrupted with, “Well he’s not! He’s my horse!”
(I cringed, because this looked to be the start of a horrible scene)
“And if you think there might be something there—I’m pulling him!”
It takes a lot of time and miles to condition a horse to do endurance, and by then you’ve spent so much time with that horse–often without anyone else along–that there is a good strong relationship between horse and rider.
Are there people out there doing endurance with the disposable horse mentality?
Some.
They are pretty much despised by the majority of participants.
When AERC and FEI split, the AERC contingent pretty much felt that FEI didn’t care enough about the horses.
Turns out they were right.
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Riding a horse on treacherous trails in the pitch black is not something someone who cares about their horse would do.
Again, this is for the human.
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