WeAreOnTheLoose blog - Full Story
September 12, 2026
by Jamethiel Morse
Strap on in for this one, all arms and legs inside the ride please, this is a bit of a doozy! I’ve never done a Pioneer ride before, and technically I still haven’t, but I may well be hooked now. I did end up riding three days in a row, but I only snagged one completion…and our first ever Best Condition!!!!
The Old Selam Pioneer ride is held over three days in the mountains north of Boise, just east of Idaho City. The haul from Canby to Centerville is at the bare edge of what I’ll ask Tarma to do in one day, and I only tried it because we’ve already done it once this year, in the opposite direction heading home from our big spring trip. 85% of the haul is all on I84, so fairly straightforward cruising with plenty of easy rest stops. I always unload Tarma at least once if she’s hauling more than 6 hours, which I did hauling over just outside Baker City and hauling home outside La Grande. It gives me a chance to get some wet mash into her, let her stretch her legs, pee, and get her head down. This does require a bit of equine calculus; can I trust her to load back up? I do and she does, but it’s something to consider.
My original plan was to haul over Thursday, have a rest day Friday, ride a 50 on Saturday and a 25 on Sunday, then haul home on Monday, Labor Day. In hindsight, I think I should have kept to this schedule. I had won at the PNER convention to have an experienced 100 miler rider crew for me, and as they were riding the 100 on Sunday and were not arriving to camp until Friday night I moved my schedule up a day. I think if the weather Thursday night hadn’t been cold and rainy, we might have done out better. But part of endurance is dealing with the variables handed to you, and doing your best.
My plan for the 50 miler was to push us a bit in multiple ways; I wanted to go out with the group and see how Tarma’s emotional state handled a crowded start; I wanted to get our moving average up a bit; and I wanted a lot of hills! I got all three in spades. Our region boasts the Blakely family, who regularly top 10 Tevis and train and sell FEI level horses. They happened to be riding the Friday 50 miler, and Tarma tried to convince me she could keep up with them for like, half a mile before I pulled her back in. She was NOT thrilled with this and the first three miles were rough, I couldn’t get her to walk or anything less than a power trot for love or money and there was a pretty dang steep climb that she just threw herself at. Again in hindsight, I should have changed our warm up plan; normally I walk out the first mile but that only works if we aren’t caught up in the group. Next time I will mount up more like 15-20 minutes before the trail opens and walk around a bit more.
We did manage to find a bubble (and get passed by one of my favorite photographers, Merri Melde, on her big Standardbred Hillbillie Willie, who recognized us! How cool!) but somewhere in the starting mad scramble Tarma managed to toss off that damn left front shoe. Fudge. I only really noticed it when I hopped off to pee and electrolyte her at mile 8, after some amazing road cruising with the sun rising over the foggy valley. What a view we had! We managed to finish all the rest of our miles with a Renegade on that hoof without further issues…or mostly.
The first loop of this 50 miler was 23 miles, making for our first two loop 50. This might have been another factor to our pull. We slid into camp our normal way, with me jumping off just outside camp, loosening her cinch and dropping her bit. I did have the Polar heart rate monitor for this ride, and I loved riding with it! It gave me such a clear idea of where she was and how long her recoveries from different levels of effort are. It also backed up that I do know her pretty well; at our final hold I was able to tell the vet, “She’s probably about 62-64” without looking at the Polar…and she was at 62!
Anyway, back to the 50. We walked into camp, she vetted right through as she normally does…but in the 100 yards or so back to our trailer I began to get a bad feeling. At the trailer she didn’t dive into her food per usual, and she wanted to roll, even with her tack and blanket thrown over the saddle on. She was standing with her right rear leg out behind her, not wanting to put full weight on it. OH NO. Bad vibes! I strip her tack and put her cooler on, and her eyes get that internal look that horses get when something isn’t quite right. She curls up on the ground, but thankfully she wasn’t thrashing, groaning, sweaty or looking at her belly, she just looked like standing was too much effort...
Read the rest here:
https://weareontheloose.com/2026/09/12/ride-report-old-selam-pioneer/
