----- Original Message -----
From: Annie George
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 11:07 PM
To: RideCamp
Subject: RC: XP Finish
WOW ! I just got home from Virginia City, and giving the award saddle to the best performance horse of the 2001 XP Pony Express Ride. It was a great experience for me to participate on such a unique level. I haven't gone thru my ridecamp E/mails yet, so in case you haven't herd, the Best Performance horse the one who went the most miles and was still fit to continue, was a little wiry tuff Mustang. I will leave all the exact details to someone who will be more accurate than my memory. Some of the horses had lost weight, but most looked pretty darn good. There were a few saddle sores, and some other various ailments, that you will see at any mutedly ride. But It was all in all a remarkably fit herd of mighty fine horses. I had the opportunity to look very closely at probably all or most of the horses that were still there, and talk to many of the riders, crew people, and friends and family of the riders who came to the Grand Finale. I was very impressed, and I am really not easily impressed. I was in awe of the spirit of the entire event. The camaraderie, closeness, and family attitude of the riders, and all their people involved was something you rarely see in any group of people. I am proud as I can be to have given the trophy saddle for the Best Performance Horse. I am also extremely proud to call those riders my friends. I have been involved in Endurance for many years and horse events of one kind or another all of my life, I have never felt the spirit of the horsemen like I did at the end of that event. I don't even have the words to describe it. It was truly a very moving experience. Would that we all could test ourselves that way at least once in our lives. Annie G.
This is my first experience even reading about the XP. I guess I'm still a Rookie at heart. Anyway, this multi-day ride has taken endurance to an entirely new level, for me, and I just wish the darn thing would start a little closer in the East so I could experience a bit of it. Actually, I probably wouldn't ride it, but I would crew for my kid, cause she's got the only horse in the family that could probably do a few of these days. It boggles the mind what some of the horses and riders have accomplished here. And who would have guessed a Mustang over an Arab would have completed the most miles.
I'm in awe, I don't have a right to even talk about it or write about it. But two years from now, I just know I have to see some of it. The ride that never ends on a horse that never quits. It's always been my dream.
cya,
Howard