Rocky Mountain Challenge - 2008 Canadian Nationals

For the past few months I've been very busy preparing for the Canadian Nationals for endurance riding, which took place on August long weekend in the Rocky Mountain foothills in Sundre, AB. Teams and individuals came from across Canada, as well as the US, and as far away as Australia.

I was nominated as an alternate for the 100 mile Alberta endurance team, which I didn't find out until two weeks before the event. The team consisted of Christy Janzen (owns the horses I ride), her 15 year old daughter Jaylene, and Crystal Fulcher, who met Moira and Justine on their holiday earlier this year. I rode Sakic, who I have been competing on since the last part of last year's season (Jaylene is now riding Hailey).

The trail was brutally difficult, which was illustrated by the fact that 26 horses started the 100 and only 10 finished. Unfortunately I was not one of the finishers. Sakic and I made it 50 miles (the toughest we've done yet) and then he was pulled because of a tight right hamstring. Christy and I feel that he could have continued, but the vets are very picky at that level. In hindsight I don't think Sakic would have finished anyways due to the difficulty of the terrain. The vets always put the welfare of the horses first and are very good at their job - I'm glad they are there to look out for our partners on the trail.

Even though we didn't finish, Sakic and I had a great day, and when Christy took him the vets the next morning to have him checked out, they said he looked 100% and couldn't see anything wrong with him. I think he thought he was only entered in the 50 mile division anyways! I was incredibly disappointed that I didn't finish because I worked very hard to get Sakic to 50 miles (tailed him straight up the mountains and hand jogged him straight down), but it was a good experience to ride with the best in the country.


The next morning was the Ride and Tie, which is a race with two people and one horse. The people alternate between running (walking/jogging/shuffling/etc.) and riding in a weird game of leap frog. I started riding, tied the horse, then headed off down the trail running. My partner, Jules, started running, reached the horse, untied, then rode until she caught up with me and we switched. We kept alternating like that for 10 miles, until we crossed the finish line in 9th place. It was a very successful day for us because it was our first Ride and Tie, I had a long and difficult day the day before, we switched horses the night before (we were going to ride Hailey, but Jaylene didn't finish the 100 on her until 3:30, so we rode Steal, who did the 2 day 80 mile Competitive Trail two days prior), it was Jules' first ride on trails away from home, she was out there by herself, and was following a ribboned trail for the first time in her life with no one to guide her. At one point she missed a turn and went the wrong way for 600 m or so, then realized what happened. Meanwhile, I was running... and running... and running... and wondering where my partner was!

There were 9 events in total over the weekend, all of which you can read about on the website. Mom drove all the way over from BC to help crew for me, and was a huge help. She scooped poop, fed me, carried water, walked Sakic for me, was up with me at 3:30 am to help me get ready for the start of the 100, stayed up until I went to bed sometime around 1 am, then was up with me again at 6 am to help me get ready for the Ride and Tie, and was there when Jules and I crossed the finish line. We had a good time, even though there wasn't much time for visiting/socializing. I would like to compete at Nationals again in the future if I have a horse to ride and it's not too far to travel.