Grand Canyon XP Day 2: “It’s Tulip Time” - Karen Chaton

Enduranceridestuff.com - Full Story and photos

I think that I am pretty fortunate to be offered the opportunity to ride Tulip on the second day. For those that don’t know, Tulip is a Morab endurance horse that holds the record for having the most endurance miles on the sport.

With this ride, Tulip has 21,630 miles. Here is a link to his AERC ride record. I’m quite certain that Tulips record will never be equaled again, for a lot of reasons.

Normally I prefer to ride my own horses and generally do not ride other horses. This was the first time for me, actually. Dave Rabe has been riding Tulip some this ride season for Les, who is still recovering from a riding accident last year...

Read more here:
http://enduranceridestuff.com/blog/2010/10/grand-canyon-xp-day-2-tulip-time/

Riding in the rain: The 1st day of the Grand Canyon XP - Karen Chaton

Enduranceridestuff.com Blog - Story and Photos

October 25 2010

Riding in the rain: The 1st day of the Grand Canyon XP – what went right and what didn’t!

The fall colors this year at the Grand Canyon XP were stunning! I went down early to help out. Dave Rabe did also. No sooner had we gotten camp set up and situated then we hopped into the jeep with Dave and Ann and went out to saw logs and clear some trail.

grand canyon xp trail clearing downfall 018 Medium 300x225 Riding in the rain: The 1st day of the Grand Canyon XP what went right and what didnt!That went well and after several logs were sawed and pulled off trail we made our way back to camp and had dinner.

The weather had been mild so far (which is partly why the fall colors were not past their peak) and there were quite a few bugs bothering our horses.

The next morning we headed out early with the horses and were dropped off at one of the points on the Rainbow Rim rail. I took Bo, and Dave took Tulip.

We rode about 18 miles. The Rainbow Rim trail is singletrack and winds through the forest coming out around the edges of the North Rim every so often, offering us glimpses of the spectacular Grand Canyon. What a view!

More story and Photos here:
http://enduranceridestuff.com/blog/2010/10/riding-rain-1st-day-grand-canyon-xp/

First Endurance Report - Rubi in France Blog

Rubi-in-France.blogspot.com - Full Story

Friday, 8 October 2010
First endurance report
Mr Good Boy has been promoted to Mr Chou Chou d'Amour after his first endurance ride yesterday. He was such an unbelievable superstar!

After spending an hour the night before practicing loading into the new, narrower trailer in the dark with just the interior light on, I went to collect him from the field at 6am, still dark. I thought he might be a bit sticky about going in but he walked straight up the ramp and then stood there like a good, good lad while Herve put the back bar and the ramp up. He then travelled beautifully, with only a small amount of complaining at the peage when we had to stop to collect a toll ticket.

When we arrived at the venue, he was really well behaved and chilled out, though he wanted to walk around rather than stand by his haynet. Can understand that after having been in the trailer for over two hours. His excellent behaviour was even more impressive given that there was a strong breeze blowing, lots of new horses to see and hear and lots of trailer and cars coming and going.

I went to get him vetted and he was a bit poky about the vet's scanner machine but the vet was superb and went all quiet and soft with Rubi, gently approaching him and giving him a stroke, letting him have a sniff of the machine and a look at the stethoscope. His heart rate was at 40! Fantastic for his first event!

When it came to setting off, he was a bit on his toes and spooked as he caught sight in his rear vision of a bunch of cantering horses arriving at the finish line on the other side of the hedge, but it wasn't a serious spook. Then we came to set off and he slammed on the brakes at the sight of the white chalk start line! Eva took a hilarious photo of him prancing over it, hiking his tail over his back like a real Diva, as we set off!

Initially we were riding by ourselves, down through the woods and he was really forward going. His ears were so pricked I thought they were going to cross in the middle. He was utterly spellbound at the new trail we had to explore, down through the trees and there was only minor 'looking at things' - no spooking at branches, birds, carnivorous butterflies etc etc..
Our first challenge lay at the bottom of that forest track as we had to cross a stream!...

Read more here:
http://rubi-in-france.blogspot.com/2010/10/first-endurance-report.html