By Emily Farmer
September 22 2025
Naji is officially a 100 mile mare. I suppose that technically makes me a 100 mile rider, as I managed to hang on for that length of time! What follows is almost as long of a read, as the ride was a ride!
On Saturday we attempted the Virginia City 100, a historic 100 mile endurance ride held by the Nevada All-State Trail Riders, which starts and ends in Virginia City, NV. This ride was hard. I can honestly say that both the first and last 50 miles taken independently were each probably harder than any other 50 mile ride we've done so far. The unrelenting rocks and elevation changes made this ride especially unforgettable, and ultimately took a tole on Naji's shoes in a way that I could not have imagined.
We started off strong for the first 50 miles, riding with Amrita Oleary and her powerful Poet, and Peggy Murphy and her hard as nails mare. Lucy Chaplin Trumbull and Annette McGyver provided exceptional, experienced crewing support through the entire ride, and Naji pulsed down shortly after arrival at each Vet check and ate and drank with gusto.
We arrived back at camp at 50 miles and Naji was looking great apart from a mild soreness on her right back/loin area. While she ate and drank and relaxed, we switched over all my saddle bags over to a different saddle and pad, to attempt to correct the discomfort that was developing. She had also lost the DIM support material in both front shoes, so I pulled what remained and refilled under all 4 pads with Silpack soft to prevent any more little rocks from getting in the back. I felt that Naji was going to have a rough go mentally leaving camp at 50 miles, as she was probably expecting to be done at that distance. For these reasons I decided to stay a little longer at this Vet check, and let Amrita and Peggy go on ahead. I didn't want Naji to get caught up trying to go too fast and burn herself out given how much we had left to do. I started out on my own, still in third place, and immediately went the wrong way, back up loop 1!! OOPS! Got back on track only to find that the trail was pretty intense in both elevation and rocky footing, and Naji was a little checked-out mentally. She still had good energy, but all she wanted to do was eat. Every tuft of dry brittle desert grass became a snack. We moved along despite the difficulties and actually caught up to Amrita and Peggy at the Jumbo aid station around 60 miles in. We commiserated about the difficulty of the trail, that our horses were in "march" mode, and after allowing her some time to rest and eat, I decided to go on together with them in the hopes it would perk her up a little. That it did, but only for a short time before we started climbing Mount Davidson.
On our way up the mountain Naji got into a slow, casual, steady trot around 5 mph, which she was able to maintain most of the way up with some breaks to walk. Amrita and Peggy pulled ahead and went on their way. The way back down was so steep and rocky that I dismounted and jogged/walked for probably a good mile or so. This was beneficial for my knees and body in general, although I did slip and fall on loose rocks several times while Naji looked on, wondering what my problem was! This was a long, slow, descent and I will admit, I was starting to wonder what the heck we were doing out here.
Lucy and Annette met me where the trail crossed the road near Geiger Summit and Naji TANKED up. She drank and drank and drank and hoovered hay. They also tried to get food and liquids into me, but I was more resistant. I did get in some of the hot chocolate they made, and forced myself to eat another Gu, but I was starting to get nauseated and feeling a bit low. We spent a good bit of time here and both left feeling perked up. Arrived back at camp in dark-twilight at 7:50. Still in 3rd place but with a group of 3 other riders right with us that had caught up on the descent to camp.
This was a 45 minute tack-off hold. Despite the rough nature of loop 2, Naji was still doing well both metabolically and soundness wise. She pulsed in great and apart from B on gut sounds, she got straight A's on the rest of her vet card, including that sore spot on her back, which had resolved with the saddle change. Her shoes were, however, looking VERY rough and I had some concerns. I had applied Easycare Race on the front, which has an exposed aluminum shoe in the bottom and Easycare Speed Metal on the hind, which has an aluminum shoe embedded within composite. I've used this same shoe combo repeatedly, and did the 60 mile at the 20 Mule Team ride with a similar set up that had already been in wear for 3 weeks at the time of the ride, so this was a testament to just how rocky and difficult this ride had been so far. Both front shoes showed severe wear, with the heals of the aluminum shoe worn down flat as a pancake. The rear shoes had the composite material worn off at the toes and the metal within was exposed and starting to wear. There was not much I could do at this stage of the game other than hope they would last. I do carry 2 spare boots, in the event a shoe comes off.
We started out on loop 3 and Naji was a little hesitant to go out into the night, but feeling perked up and pretty energetic. It was now completely dark (new moon in 1 day) and I rode with my red headlamp on to preserve her night vision and I let Naji pick the route. We were leap frogging the group of 3 riders that had come in with us at the end of loop two, and she was motoring along pretty well. About 5 miles in to loop 3 she became more hesitant and she felt a bit off. The group of 3 riders went ahead (Suzanne Hayes with 2 others) and I slowed down (moving to 6th) assuming Naji was probably just pooping out. A few miles later, around 8 miles in, she became noticeably off. I peered down in the darkness to see the heal portion of the glue-on cuff of one front shoe sticking out oddly to the side. Got off and discovered complete failure and breakage of the entire lateral side of the aluminum shoe on the front left. The cuff was still adhered to the hoof at the top, and the entire medial cuff was still on. Upon inspection of the front right, I found similar breakage of the metal at both the medial and lateral toe, but both cuffs were still very tightly adhered to the hoof wall and the bits of metal shoe had not displaced, being still stuck to the pad beneath them. I decided I would try to wrap tape around both shoes to hold the pieces together under the hoof.
Unfortunately, the cuffs had not separated from the hoof wall, making it difficult to actually remove the shoe the rest of the way so that I could apply my back up boots. The boots will not fit over the shoes if they are still attached. We continued with the tape job, mostly walking, slowly trotting for another 2 miles, when she felt off again and I looked down and found it had disintegrated. At this time I decided we were not going to make it with the one badly broken shoe, I had to remove it and apply the boot. I got out my handy Leatherman tool (thanks Richard Myers) and filed away enough glue so that I could use the pliers to pry the cuffs off. Got the boot on OK. Thought about doing the same to the other shoe but it was still REALLY on there, and the metal bits were not displaced, so I wrapped some more tape on and away we went slowly walking/trotting, sound again. At this point, I will admit, I was quite down. I thought frequently about calling Lucy and Annette and asking them to pick me up along a road somewhere. I thought about bed, about sitting in a chair, about laying flat on the motionless ground. Many dark thoughts came and went. Two more riders came upon me in the dark and passed, pushing me to 8th. I was around 92 miles. I told myself I could walk the entire way to finish and still complete in time, and that pushed me on. At mile 94 I arrived at the Long meadow vet check, tape still intact on one, boot on the other. She vetted in sound. I asked a volunteer if anyone had duct tape and amazingly someone did, so I wrapped some duct tape around the electrical tape. Melissa Montgomery and two other riders with her came in to the vet check shortly thereafter and passed within a few minutes of leaving, pushing me out of the top 10. I started this ride just hoping to complete it. Being in the top 10 would have been icing on the cake, but I had mentally returned to priority #1, which was completion with a healthy horse.
I continued with some slow trotting on the flat sandy sections and walking in others. I could tell Naji was irritated by the 1 boot and the mobility of the bits of the other shoe. Around mile 97 we had made it to Sign Hill and two more riders (Jeremy Reynolds and another) came up. In true endurance family fashion, Jeremy tried to assist with my shoe issue! He had a larger size Easyboot which he tried to apply over the broken metal shoe but unfortunately it still wasn't large enough to fasten securely with the shoe and cuffs in place. I asked them to go ahead, we were in "limp" mode and I did not want to slow them down. The 2 miles down off of Sign Hill are steep and rocky. I got off and walked on foot, slid and fell a few more times. I continued on foot for 2 miles until about 100 yards from the finish line where I remounted. I wanted to cross that line riding. We finished at 1:42 am with a ride time of 17 hrs 27 minutes. Despite the issues we had faced, Naji vetted in amazingly and we still finished in 13th. She got A's for all categories apart from B on her back, which had become a little sore again around the loins.
I learned so many things on this ride. Naji learned so many things. Her incredible strength and stamina has amazed me once again. She could outrun the four horses of the apocalypse. A huge thank you to my incredible crew Lucy and Annette. Although he could not be at this ride, my enjoyment of this sport would not be possible without the immense support and great efforts of Chris Farmer. And last but not least, the ride management and volunteers who did an amazing job putting this ride together. What an experience!
