Wednesday, July 16, 2025

2025 Tevis Cup - Jay Mero

www.endurance.net/international/USA/2025TevisCup

by Jay Mero DVM
July 15 2025

“Learn By Doing” to borrow the University of Cal Poly’s famous quote - was the theme for our Tevis 2025 weekend. My best mare Lena bruised her right rear foot on a training ride exactly two weeks before Tevis. It was my fault as we had been training hard and I’d let her shoes get too worn in the last week or two lead up, trying to get her closer to her Tevis shoeing date. I still made a big effort trying to help her with some injections and special shoes, but we just didn’t have enough time. We also have been struggling with Clip’s LR foot since Febuary, also trying every bit of magic I could pull out of a hat to keep her sound. The whole scenario with both mares was just really ridiculous as many know we’ve struggled for years with their front feet. Always their front feet, till this year.

So when it became obvious Lena was out and Clip was a question mark, there wasn’t much left in the yard for me to pick from. Lucky for me our first homebred, race bred Arab mare Arrya was the solution. Arrya is the daughter of my first race bred Arab mare Jet Setting Sandrita, who has finished Tevis, and a tough, tough race stallion named Ibn Okba, out of the famous Okba. Arrya had been training right along with her big sisters and had gotten to rides earlier this year including a 3 day and a 2 day back to back stints. But I don’t usually bring a horse to a 100 miler until another year of training and many more endurance rides are under their belt. In addition Tevis is a whole other beast and horses really need to be well trained, seasoned and responsive to all the rider’s aids to increase the odds of finishing healthy and safely. We were sorely lacking in that catagory.

Let’s just say the mare likely experienced 6-12 months of training and schooling in one compressed 24 hour period. I fretted over the start, as I knew we’d need to first stand still in what I call a tin can alley after we walk down to the start a little over a mile from ride camp. We wait another 5-8 minutes packed into said tin can before we are released to start. Anyone who’s ridden a young horse can appreciate patience is not one of their virtues. Then we’d have to navigate lots of single tract with drop offs and horses galloping by us, most often not safely, as soon as they got a sliver of trail to go by. We tried to start with Clip and Reyna for support but then I just sent them on ahead. I’m not really sure how we survived the beginning as I had to have a thousand discussions with Arrya about how fast we were in fact going to go, and no not as fast as she wanted to. She opted to express her displeasure at me controlling her pace with throwing her head side to side, often taking her entire front end with her, sometimes perilously close to the edges, whenever I asked her for contact and to slow down. I’ll be truthful it was pretty bad and I definitely spent those first 12 miles questioning my life choices.

At High Camp about 3/4 of the way up Squaw, we stopped for water, to give electrolytes, and for me to see how she’d recover her heart rate after 12 miles of impressive fretting and drama and most of the time her heart rate being way too high. She shocked me by recovering in Lena and Clip like speed. So off we went again surviving the boulder field and rock water falls of Granite Chief with only a few meltdowns when I wouldn’t let her follow horses in front of her too closely. We finally got some open trail on the way to Cougar Rock and I started to get my horse “back” again. I’d said all along no way was I doing Cougar Rock with a baby horse. But as we got to the rock all alone, a friend taking pictures there asked what I was going do and I said “no no not with a baby, no no, Oh heck let’s try it!” And up we went. And yes we had a moment near the top Arrya was not too sure. She stopped. Tried to go left. Tried to go right. Tried to turn around and finally I got her to just stop a moment and think - and then she hopped up and over and we were gone! Whoop whoop! I was pretty proud of her in that moment! At that moment I thought we got this! We can do this, as long as I caredully monitored her “tank” all day and made sure I left enough in it to keep going.

The learn by doing phrase happened at the first big hold, Robinson Flat, when she wouldnt eat much, too upset with all the commotion and then Clip and Reyna leaving. They were going to go a lot faster all day. I told my kids Arrya would either figure it out as the day worn on and start eating and drinking or we were gonna be done. At that moment none of us knew how it would go.

Let’s just say this post is already way too long to share all the highs and great moments Arrya and I had together. She did indeed get it done - in spectacular fashion, finishing in 12 th place, very sound, ears up, perky, and with plenty of gas left in that tank! This baby horse had never been ridden in the dark (no head lamp) or crossed a river that we had to just about swim across because she’s a little short, nor had she ever had to continue on all alone for hours in the dark with no other horses to support her. I’m in awe of what this “little engine that could” got done on Saturday and will likely accomplish in her up and coming endurance career. She’s going to get a longer than usual rest period now, given I asked a lot of her so early in her training. But we are so excited in our family for this little mare.

To finish up the darn rear foot thing got Reyna and Clip around 60 plus miles, they had to stop at ForestHill but not before Reyna had proven she could race the Tevis trail all on her own, getting herself all the way into 4th to 5 th place before they had to stop! I was very proud of Reyna. We had the whole family back together again to help crew, which I’m so grateful for, they were amazing. And I am so thankful for the wonderful volunteers that helped me at every stop, cooling my mare, helping to hold her and bringing her mash and hay (Arrya did decide later in the day I must have been starving her) as she started ravenously eating and drinking from every tank and puddle. Amazing how 100 miles of that trail will teach a horse SO much about life. LOL

Thank you also to all of the vets, and ride management and my fellow Tevis Board members for making this ride happen. Thank you to our farrier Justin Loewen and to Buzz Arnold for being the taxi driver and getting the rig out of Robie Park. Tevis truly is magical, it doesn’t matter if you are riding to race it or to just experience the trail to see what you and your horse can do together. There is no other ride like this! Finally congrats to my good friend John Perry for winning the Haggin Cup with his mare Diva. Very well deserved, Diva looked fabulous. John and Reyna rode together quite the bit of the day and I was so relieved she had a good friend and rider to lean on.

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