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Congratulations to Monique Vincent
& her girls...
MJL Olivia, Savanna & Out of Control!
"AERC ACCOLATES 2009"
ABOARD MJL OLIVIA
(*Oman x MJL Stanz-Abi (ox))
First Place
- Central Region Overall
First Place
- Central Region Featherweight Division
Second Place
- Central Region Mileage Championship (up to two horses
per rider for the highest mileage; only the top two per
region are recognized)
Fifth Place
- National War Mare Division
Third Place
- National Pioneer Featherweight Division
ABOARD
SAVANNA
Seventh Place
- Central Region Featherweight Division
Second Place
- Central Region Mileage Championship (with MJL Olivia)
Third Place
- Central Region Best Condition
Monique's' story...
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!
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