MEET THE JUNIOR Katie Lydon

Junior Katie Lydon of Manton, California, recently won the National Championship 55-mile ride with KL Rising Storm. The West Region rider has posted nearly 1,400 miles of endurance and 250 miles of limited distance in five years of competition. Here she shares her story of the national championships (for complete coverage, see page 23).

Q: How long have you been riding endurance?

A: I have been riding endurance for seven years and I love every minute.

Q: Tell us about your horse and how long she has been doing endurance.

A: I ride a bay mare with one eye named Stormy. She is 15 hands and is 8 years old. Her sire is Khadraj NA, a Western Pleasure Champion. Her dam is LSG Festivity, a Retador daughter. I got Stormy when she was 5 months old as a Christmas present. She lost her eye when she was three months old and lived at UC Davis for one month while it healed. I have done all her training except for a few critical rides which my dad has done. She has been doing endurance for four years and she has top tenned six of them.

Q: What was your plan for the National Championship ride?

A: Dad (Rob Lydon, DVM) and I had agreed to let our horses pick their own pace during the National Championship, but we weren't quite expecting the pace they wanted to set. They would have run the whole thing if we had let them. As it was we still did a fast-paced ride. There were times when I was worried about them tripping because of the speed, but our horses were too sure-footed to fall. At every vet check they looked the same: hot and ready to race.

Q: What was the high point of the National Championship ride for you?

A: The high point of the day was the last seven miles. We left a minute and a half behind the next rider and our horses wanted to catch her. My dad's horse took off out of the vet check and my dad couldn't stop him with only a halter. My mare and I followed behind them for three miles until we passed the next horse. We got them to slow down a little so we could make it safely around a cattle guard as we passed the rider.

We slowed down but were still galloping when we hit the downhill' trail. It was a steep, sandy, narrow, single-track trail for an eighth of a mile until we hit the road again. At the bottom my mare and I took the lead again as we made the last turn towards camp.

I let her go almost full-out the entire way. I glanced back a couple times to see my dad fall further and further back as we ran. We crossed the finish in 5:35 and in third place.

Q: What was the low point of the day for you?

A: There wasn't really a low point during the ride, most likely because the trail was so pretty. The biggest challenge for me was keeping my horse from overworking herself. Her biggest weakness is also her greatest strength because she has the ability to ignore her pain and fatigue through her will to go. She has a tendency to run herself into the ground if I don't regulate our pace.

Q: What was your impression of ride management, vetting and the trail?

A: The management was really nice and so was the trail. The vetting was great because you really felt like you were geting the most attention possible.

Q: Any final thoughts about your National Championship experience?

A: I really enjoyed doing this ride and the trail was beautiful. It was a little rocky and overgrown in places but it was still very pretty. I also enjoyed meeting all of the international people that were helping the ride. I can't wait to do this again; my mare and I had so much fun!

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