Having way too much time on my I hands I looked up the completion times for
some of the other FEI rides and other 100's done in 2007. The fastest completion
time I could find was 8:29 by Valerie Kanavy at the FITS ride. The next closest
was 8:34 by John Crandell on Heraldic at the Fort Howes ride. James Davidson did
the Camp Osborn 100 in 8:51. There was a 9:30 by Heather Reynolds at the
Git-R-Done ride. Crandell did the AERC National Championships in 9:35. Jan
Worthington did the Carolina in 9:38. Rob Biswas did the Klickitat in
9:50. Judith Ogus did the 20 Mule Team ride in 9:57. Meg Sleeper won the Z-Tec
in 9:59. Kim Orr did the Hallelujah Benefit in 10:02. Christoph Schork did the
Owyhee in 10:07. Steve Rojek won the Biltmore FEI in 10:16. Betsy Adamson won
the Patriot's Day ride in 10:19. Kim Fuess won the Rio Grand in 10:52. All other
100's were significantly over 11 hours.
So what does this mean? The Las Cruces ride wasn't all that fast. It was
won in what appears to be an average time for the fastest 100's run in this
country. Now for the rest of the story. Valerie could have finished this ride
almost 2 hours earlier except she made some mistakes on the trail. She went to
the bathroom and her horse got away wasting about a half hour. She did an extra
five miles on one loop. I know this to be true because she passed me twice on
this loop, confusing the hell out of me. There was a five mile lollipop she went
around twice. And on another loop she sort of got misdirected and ended up doing
an extra 10-15 miles. So the course was laid out for an 8 hour completion time
but it just didn't happen this time. However, even the fastest time at the FITS
ride was significantly slower than any of the rides in Dubai where
completion times are pushing to break 7 hours. I don't know exactly what
this means except that the Las Cruces ride wasn't all that fast. It certainly
wasn't a "Speedway". I am not knowledgeable enough to ascertain any judgment
whether this is a reflection on the quality of US horses or our conditioning
programs. I do know that people like John Crandell, Valerie, Meg, Christoph,
Heather and others are certainly capable of competing on the International
level. Their wins and placements in other countries proves that. I just thought
this was interesting.
