On November 13 and 15 2009 MJL Olivia participated in the AERC sanctioned three day Renegade Pioneer ride. There was a good turn-out for the ride including some big names such as Crockett Dumas (over 34,000 lifetime miles, 79 100-mile starts with 71 completions), Christoph Schork (winner of Australia’s Quilty Cup in 2005; 7th place at the Kentucky pre-ride in October 2009; over 30 wins in the 2009 season), Michael Campbell (US Central team member at the 2002 Pan American Championship in 2002) and Garrette Ford (contender for the National Best Conditioned award for 2009) just to name a few. On the first day of the three day ride Olivia gave a strong yet conservative performance to finish 4th with an approximate ride time of 4hours and 55 minutes over a 55-mile distance. 

We were then back on course two days later for the third day of the ride. The day started out with Olivia going a bit faster than I wanted her to go. By the first water stop we were riding with Michael Campbell and Christoph Schork. I wanted to slow down and so I gave Michael and Christoph four minutes to get ahead. But within about three minutes Olivia and I had caught them. The three of us rode together until the first vet check where I again gave them two minutes grace as I did not want to get caught up in their race. But once again Olivia and I caught Michael and Christoph within about two minutes of leaving camp on our second loop.

At the second water stop on the loop I made another concerted effort to let the two guys get ahead of us… But once again we caught them within 2-3 minutes. By this point Olivia had made it clear to me what her intentions were for the day. So we went down the trail with Christoph and Michael. We were all very evenly matched through-out the second loop. At the second vet check, Michael Campbell’s horse and Olivia pulsed in at the same time. Christoph’s horse pulsed in two minutes later. While we were resting, Michael Campbell came up to me and shared that he did not want to give this one away. He asked if I would ride with him with the goal of completing before Christoph. By this point we had 10 miles to go and any strategic error could result in a close race between the three of us. Of course I was in… who would not be?

When Kim, the timer, told Michael and me that we could go, we took off at a full gallop down the trail. We galloped for about four miles to a gate that had to be opened and closed. Michael was a gentleman and took care of the gate. We were then off again as we could see Christoph trying to catch us (this attempt was despite Randy Eiland the ride manager telling Christoph that we were much further ahead than he realized). Our horses knew that they were heading home and even the technical trail laden with deep sand known as the Turtle trail we really did not slow down. We did however slow down for the razor back as we had to ride the apex of a sandy hill that had significant drop-off s on either side. We were then on the home stretch with only a few miles to go. We were in the deep sand of an arroyo. Out of the corner of my eye I caught the reflection of Christoph’s helmet as he went down the Razor back. We then knew that he was hot on our tail but we had at least three miles on him. 

Michael and I got out of the arroyo and onto the last hill into camp. We agreed to tie for first as is had really been a team effort to stay ahead of Christoph. We crossed the finish line hand in hand just as the vets were driving into the base camp. We had started the ride at 7 am and we finished at 12:30. With an hour and 30 minutes hold, we completed the 55 mile ride in approximately 4 hours ride time with an average speed of 13.75 mph. Both horses looked good and trotted out sound for their completion vet checks.

What a great way to end the 2009 endurance season!