2026 Old Selam Day 1: Riding with my Hero! - Merri Melde

The Equestrian Vagabond blog

September 4 2026
by Merri Melde

I’d planned to ride Willie on all 3 days of LDs at the Old Selam Pioneer ride. It’s still one of mine and Willie’s favorite rides ever, in the Boise National Forest, on fabulous trails of rolling soft logging roads.

We didn’t train *super* hard ahead of time, but Willie was plenty fit enough for LDs, and we’d have fun riding all 3 days. Horses get better and stronger on the third day in a row, right?

After I vetted in on Thursday for Day 1, my Endurance mentor/hero Suzy Hayes, said, “Don’t you want to ride the 50 on Day 1 with me and Tru? We won’t be going fast and we won’t be going slow.”

First I laughed. Willie and I got our 50 in for the year at City of Rocks. But once it got in my head, it didn’t go away. I’ve never ever gotten to ride with Suzy and finally after all these years, here was the opportunity! This is Suzy Hayes, you know, over 28,000 miles, with one horse in the Hall of Fame in 2011, Kootenai Zizzero, and Pard’ners Award with the same horse in 2007, winner of the Big Horn 100 in 2020 just six weeks after a horse wreck where she broke 10 ribs, fractured two vertebrae, punctured a lung and lacerated her liver, and spent five days in the ICU and 10 more days in the hospital. Yes, that Suzy Hayes! Didn’t take me long to change my mind and my plans, and I told Willie about it, and he was all in. (After an extra bucket of carrots.)

The rather unusual forecast for Old Selam this year was so thrilling, cooler weather and chances of rain!

I don’t like saddling up in the rain - it rained at night - but I didn’t have to. The rain let up when I woke early to get ready, and we carried rain jackets for the ride...

Read the rest here:
https://theequestrianvagabond.blogspot.com/2026/09/2026-old-selam-day-1-riding-with-my-hero.html