This is a very valid point. Darn humans.
It is not rare to hear about a horse lost on a trail ride that takes an extensive time to find (days, sometimes weeks), all while it is still tacked up.
All riding must be done contained inside a fence so no horses can get loose and take time to find.
Not just a fence, but a very secure fence.
Iâm an endurance rider- I tried Tevis 15 years ago but my horse came up a little lame in the first half of the ride so we didnât finish. I regret not trying Cougar Rock- I decided beforehand to do the bypass route to play it safe but it didnât look that bad in person and my horse was a rock star and Iâm sure could have done it fine but I decided to stick to my plans.
Tevis is an extreme ride in my opinion. I donât begrudge anyone for not being brave enough to try it, either for concern for their horse or themself or both. By the time you get to the starting point, itâs pretty certain that you and your horse have done lots and lots of difficult miles and you have a ton of confidence in both of you. But I did absolutely worry about my horse and I did question if it was fair to ask this of him. I decided that it was but to each their own. I do think that for the most part endurance riders take great care of their horses and the horses stay sound a long time and continue well into their teens and even twenties. That is certainly my goal. And itâs not commonplace to see tie downs or any restrictive tack like that, in my experience.
For anyone interested this is what a vet card looks like (not mine, I just pulled this off the internet).
Although control vets can allow occasional differences, in general your pulse at all of the checks has to be 64 or below (if you are doing LD- the 25-30 mile ride, you final pulse has to be 60 rather than 64). On the grading anything below a C = you canât continue and IME if you are at a C in anything a lot of times vets will encourage you to go ahead and pull then. Personally if a vet is concerned enough to tell me you might not want to go out on the next loop, I generally go ahead and pull my horse.
My endurance friends horse KNOWS when itâs race prep time and he practically runs on the trailer when itâs time to haul out. And heâs 20 or 21 years young.
Iâll openly admit prior to meeting my friend, I thought endurance riding and riders were crazy. I still think thatâŠmaybe even more now 
âŠbut boy do they seem to have everything dialed in. I donât personally know a lot of endurance riders, but my buddy who is, came into horses as an adult. Iâm positive I learned more about proper nutrition/hoof care/tack fit from him in the first two months I had Charlie than I did from a lifetime of being around non endurance horse folks. All the photos Iâve seen from races, the people and the horses both seem to have a great time (short of any accidents which can and do happen at any and all horse events).
I donât think my body could handle being in the saddle for that long, but it seems like a blast.
I rode a 23 year old seasoned endurance mare in a competition on Sunday. She knows her job and wowed me with what horses are capable of doing. Finished with all As and pluses on the vet card. I didnât do it with just a neck rope, but I didnât use a bit either.
Anyone who has been in the Endurance world for a bit understands that not every horse is an endurance horse (but almost any sound horse can do introductory competition to get a rider started), and most horses have âtheirâ distance. Hundred milers are uncommon. The same way Grand Prix Jumpers are uncommon (as a percentage of horses in that discipline).
From the safety of a Hunter/Jumper show ring Endurance looks like insanity. For many H/J riders Eventing looks like insanity. For the average rider Grand Prix show jumping looks like insanity. Itâs all a matter of perspective.
When you get right down to it all horse sports at the top level of competition are about bragging rights. Okay, pretty much any level that has year end awards/championships/etc.
And the picture. 
Iâm planning to get one of Sundayâs ride photos printed on metal to hang on my wall - the one of the mare standing in a stream three quarters of the way through the competition while I sponge her off.
Youâre not wrong, at least if theyâre even remotely successful! They HAVE to, or the horses wonât be able to do the work at least not more than 25m rides or so.
And yeah, many of them have to have a little bit of crazy in them to do a lot of those rides LOL Iâve somehow gathered a bunch of endurance friends on FB, so I see a LOT Of stories and most of them make me go ânope, not for me!â
Congrats! Can you share your picture?
I can see the reasoning for a martingale. Back when I was a young whippersnapper and doing a few 50 mile rides my Arab would run away with me the first 10 miles of the ride. He was really lazy at home but you get all those horses starting together at the ride and most of them are pretty fit - well you get a stampede. And you get the yahoos that have no idea of how long 50 miles really is and think they are going to gallop the whole way. This isnât that safe plus you want to rate your horse so he doesnât burn himself out at the beginning of the ride.
I doubt you have very many yahoos when you get to the level of the Tevis Cup but those horses are really fit. And you donât win endurance with a horse that is a quitter so it is expected for your horse to have a lot of go. I imagine as a horse gets more experienced they settle somewhat. I think this is true for the top of the sport in any area. Top Grand Prix dressage horses are hot horses. Top jumpers are not for the faint of heart. And top event horses can be pretty wild in the jog ups.
And I am all for vet checks. In any sport there are people that ride for the glory but are not good horseman. Endurance is not alone in this. Think of the event horses struggling and crashing at the end of the cross country that should have been flagged and pulled up long before they got to that point. But you canât check TPRâs halfway through the course. Not just event horses - lots of other sports too. Maybe if they looked more closely at race horses there wouldnât be so many breakdowns during races. Vet checks donât just weed out the competitors that need to be eliminated, they give really good feedback for the riders too.
I wonât, because itâs not my horse. Thanks for asking, though! 
About 1/3 of the horses didnât complete, mostly due to being lame or metabolic. Can I ask: how lame? Actually colicking? That seems extremeâŠ
do you have the info saying most of the 1/3 were lame or metabolic? Just curious.
It doesnât have to be very lame at all for a vet to say NOPE, or the rider to say NOPE. Step on a rock wrong and tweak a fetlock, and a good rider will pull the horse if they donât quickly work out of some ouchiness. I know of one horse whose rider pulled him at 12 miles in because his back end was getting tight, but I donât know if that would be classified as lame, or metabolic
Itâs just a TOUGH ride, the weather is unpredictable, and vets donât let iffy horses continue
Thatâs the beauty and what I love about the Tevis. In so many other venues where riders ask the horse to go âthe extra mileâ, you wonât see a vet in sight. At the Tevis, vets are everywhere, doing their job, and the horse who finishes in top 10, with the best vet score, get the most coveted award: The Haggin Cup.
â⊠In 1964, Louis Haggin of Versailles, Kentucky, donated the James Ben Ali Haggin Cup in honor of his grandfather. It is awarded to the horse among the first ten finishers that is consideredâas Lloyd Tevis statedââto be in the most superior physical condition.ââ
One can talk about the Tevis to non-horse people, tell them about the competition and explain about the Haggin Cup, that the most coveted award is this one, where the horse itself and his condition is measured to be in the best shape, and most will nod in appreciation.
For example I got a metabolic pull about a month ago. My mare pulsed down to 64 but her pulse didnât continue dropping and she was having a very slight muscle fluttering on her side indicating I hadnât electrolyted her aggressively enough.
About 20 mins of grazing, some extra electrolytes and another good drink and she was back to 100%.
So yes, there cab be dramatic metabolic pulls- tying up, colic etc but a lot are like mine- horse is okay but not âfit to continueâ
Lameness-wise, anything not subtle and they are going to be pulled. Something like maybe your horse has a bit of a muscle cramp- you might get 20 minutes to massage, etc to try and work it out and then you can represent
94 riders were on the start list and 33 didnât complete. Reasons are mostly lameness.
Or perhaps it could be seen as a way to make sure the horses havenât hit their limit yet? These are not pasture puffs pulled out once a year for the âbragging rightsâ of a Tevis ride. Nor are they arena horses that are schooled to jump a certain height. These are extremely well conditioned athletes that love the work. The fact that the finishers need to be âconditioned inâ at the finish line says it all. They have to physically move out, sound and in such a way that says that could ride even more.
Sheilah
Sheilah
Here in Idaho this is a pretty common occurrence. Summer because of horse camping and fall because of hunters.
Sheilah
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