MEET THE JUNIOR

Rae-Anne Wadey

My name is Rae-Anne Wadey and I am 14 years old. My sister, Robyn, is 10 years old. We are from Alberta, Canada and we are endurance riders! When I was only 2, I told my mom I wanted to be an endurance rider. I started out doing limited distance when I was 5 on a crazy 13.2hh Spanish Mustang mare named Gypsy who was too much for me, so I rode Kris, my mom's brought-out-of-retirement Norwegian Fjord/Arab when I was 6, while my mom rode Gypsy. I progressed to 50s when I was 7 with my new 5-year-old Arab, Jet.

I did my first ride that I finished in the dark that year too. My mom told me it was 60 miles, but really it was 70 and I found out afterwards how long it was. My first 100-miler was the Mt. Adams 100 in Washington when I was 10. We took almost 24 hours, with only 15 minutes to spare.

Robyn started competing on Kris when she was 5 and I was 9. We dropped back to LD at first to accommodate her, but later that year my mom told her if she wanted to ride she'd have to do 50s instead, so she did!

Because of our odd assortment of mounts and the fact that none of them are very big, we have to help them through the ride. That includes getting off on almost all the hills, up and down. We never come to a ride to win. We come to finish, which happens almost every time.

Three out of the four 100s I've done have been finished in the daylight. I just wish it was daylight the same day as when we started, not sunrise the next day! Why do I do this? Why do I go out and exhaust myself, cover myself in dirt and endure blistering heat, rain and cold? Good question -- I don't even know myself. All I know is, once I start, I'm finishing if itÕs up to me. The one and only 100 I tried in Alberta I was pulled at 70 miles. Guess who cried for an hour straight? (Not my 7-year-old sister who was out on her horse in the middle of the night, but me who was tucked away in a nice comfy bed in a nice heated fifth wheel.)

My mom, my sister and I did the 100-mile National Championship in Ashland, Montana this year. The first 40 miles of it were awesome! From there the amount of fun I was having went downhill, or maybe I should say up and downhill. It got a lot more difficult the next three loops. That was hard, especially with the heat and the sun.

The second-to-the-last loop had the hardest stretch in itÑeight miles of pretty much all uphill. Robyn kept getting nosebleeds and had to stick her sponge against her face so we could keep riding. Boy, was she a mess! We left the out vet check of that loop with a bit more than a hour till it started to get dark. Thankfully it cooled off too. If it werenÕt for the guy at the last gate, who we followed out to the road, we might have got lost more than just once coming home. The time we did get lost was about two miles from camp and suddenly all the ribbons seemed to disappear. The road was too hard to tell which way the footprints went and we probably wasted 15 minutes looking for the trail we knew was there from going over it the loop before.

We stayed about 20 minutes over our hold time to let the horses rest and to get ready for the last loop. Only 15 more miles -- yippee! I started out leading on that last loop because Jet is really good in the dark. At first I was wide awake, but slowly got less and less energetic after a few miles and I started to fall asleep on my horse. It was impossible to keep my eyes open! Those lucky people who have done very long 100s may know what I am talking about. Hills at this point were actually welcome, because it meant getting off and that meant waking up.

About five miles from the finish I woke up and got to see the sun start to make the stars disappear and the sky glow. Oh joy! Another sunrise to watch at 3:30 in the morning. All day we had been debating which one of us would finish first. The only other junior in the ride had been pulled so Junior Champion was at stake. I managed to convince my mother that I deserved the first place finish.

My horse had to have a blood test to see if he was under the influence of any drugs. All three of us passed the vet check and believe me, we were glad it was over! Now I have my answer to why I do this crazy sport -- I like the challenge and saying I did it.

After being awake for 25 hours, I was told to go haul water for the horses. Even carrying the buckets over to the trough was hard work and carrying two half pails back was like trying to carry my horse up a hill. Finally I got to go to bed. It was all worth it, though. I received a big, beautiful silver buckle for first and seeing as I love buckles this was great! I wear it everywhere, even to school. ItÕs a good thing my sister didn't get it -- she would never wear it. It would just sit on her shelf for the rest of its existence. The completion prizes were red fleece jackets. That was the best completion prize I have ever received. We got tons of other prizes too. I don't ride for the prizes though. I just enjoy endurance riding and we had a great time in Montana!

I will most likely be reaching 5000 miles (sanctioned by AERC and Endurance Riders of Alberta) this year and my horse will be just short of 5000 by a couple hundred miles. I may retire him once he reaches 6000 or 7000 miles, and then move on to a more competitive horse when I graduate to a senior rider. Robyn will be almost to 4000 miles and Kris will hopefully reach 6000 miles this year -- at age 19 -- and retire. Then Robyn will start riding Gypsy, who has mellowed slightly with age, while my mom starts a new horse. As far as I know the three of us are going to keep on riding and not quit anytime soon.

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