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I've been obsessed with distance riding since I was a tiny little girl,
back in the 1950's. I didn't have a horse then, but i imagined i was
riding one where ever i went. While riding in the car, i was really
galloping my 'steed de jour' alongside the roadway. Every road trip i had
a different color of horse. My bicycle was really Trigger or Scout or
Silver.
When I was 8, i started riding for real. I still didn't own a horse. So,
i either rode double with my friend who had one or i begged and borrowed
the neighbors horses. There was a whole heard of ponies in the
neighborhood, so the kids would all get together and ride the country
roads. Of course we all rode bareback and fell off a lot.
My dad promised me a horse or a car for my 16th bday. The month before,
when he asked which i wanted, i said, "a horse"! He bought me a car. So,
I bought my own horse. He was a sweet little black QH/Hackney, Stormy.
I rode him three times a day, every day. I rode in quadrille practice MWF,
6:30-7:30 am; about mid morning rode 8 miles round-trip to the lake & went
swimming; after work, i rode from 8:00 to 10:00pm (if the moon was out i
rode longer). Once, i didn't have a trailer ride to drill practice, so i
rode 12 miles to the arena, then rode drill practice & hitched a trailer
ride home.
This was the routine. You can imagine the adventures which happened to a
young girl who spent this much time on a horse. I often dreamed of someday
riding in those long distance rides like the Tevis.
After college, I got married and moved to Idaho, where I had a hilariously
funny neighbor named Sally Ogden. (Now Sally Graf.) She was a horsewoman,
also. When I told her of my long-distance trail dreams and she said she
wanted to do this too. This is where it really all began. Within, a year
or so of my son's birth, Sally and I began to train for our first endurance
ride. The Bogus Basin Gold Rush 25, June 1979. Unfortunately, Sally broke
her foot the week before the ride. So, someone else rode her horse. But,
I and my trusty Tarna (the 3rd horse I'd owned) finished that ride. (not
uneventfully!) I was hooked. (Sally eventually got to do endurance too,
but by then I'd moved back to Colorado and never got to ride one with her).
The rest is history....
PS.. Have not done the Tevis yet. The dream is still alive and
unfulfilled!
Linda Van Ceylon
lvanceylon@vines.colostate.edu
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