Tell us about your horse  

Breed:   Arabian
Sex:  Mare
DOB:   5/13/89   
Horse height:   14.2 hh
Approx. Weight:  850
Color:  bay
Easyboot size:  front size 1, hind size 00

Tell us about your horse.  Saidah came to us in 1990 as a yearling when her owners had to move to the east coast and could not take her.

Why did you decide to purchase this horse (or if you didn't purchase, why did you choose to use this horse in endurance)?   Actually, she was kind of "forced upon us".  The owners first tried to sell her and her mom in the spring of '90 but I really did not need another horse (certainly not two).  Also, the price was exuberant - and they had to go as a package.  Well, six months later, no one had bought them and the owners were desperate.  To make a long story short: I bought them both so they would not end up at the killers.  I rode the mother in several rides but then sold her, since I could not keep up with all my livestock at the time.  I kept Saidah because she looked so cute and she was so easy to ride and train.

I wanted to do endurance with her, because I love the sport and really like to be outdoors riding for miles and miles.......

Did you do endurance with any other horses before this horse?   Yes.

How many different horses have you ridden in this sport?   Altogether probably 10. Of the horses I have left,  Saidah has 7675 miles; Naladi well over 6000, Khelina about 2000.  Mostly all in 50 or over and a few in 100 -mile rides.

Do you participate in any other horse sports or activities?    No.

How many years have you been involved with horses?  In endurance?  About 31.  About 30.

What got you interested in endurance riding?  What was it that kept you interested?  Well, I blame everything on Roger Taylor (current board member) and also Neel Glass (inventor of the Easy Boot),

 Both Roger and Neel used to live down the road from us.  They were both avid endurance riders (we are talking early 70s) and would take us out on these wonderful daylong rides in the mountains.  Roger initiated the Los Alamos Endurance ride, and pretty soon we were helping him with that.  Then we said:  "We'd rather be riding ourselves."  And so it started. During the last thirty years the sport has seen great improvements, and I still say: "I'd rather be riding."

How old was your horse when first started?    Saidah was about 4 when I first started her under saddle.

  First ride?    Saidah was almost 5 when she did her first 25 miler.

How many rides did you do the first, second, and third ride seasons?   First year (1994) one 25 miler
Second year I rode her in two 50s, and two of my friends rode her in three 50s, for a total of 250 miles.
Third year she finished 11 rides that varied from 50 to 60 miles.

What mileage distance did you start with?    25

How long till you top tenned or 'raced'?    She placed top ten in the second year in three races.  We never raced.

  How much time off do you give between ride seasons? About two months.  We do little pleasure rides in between.

If you have done 100's, how much time off do you give after doing one?   I have not done 100s with Saidah, but with others I would give them two weeks off.

 What is your schedule in the month leading up to the ride?   I don't do 100s anymore.

If you have done multidays, how much time off do you give after doing one?   One to two weeks.

 What is your schedule in the month leading up to the ride?   The conditioned horses get ridden once or twice a week on an hour-long ride, and once a week they get to go 15 to 25 miles.  But if I don't have time, I don't fret over it.  They keep their condition a long time.  Five to six days before the ride I don't do much riding with them at all.

What kind of tack do you use?    On Saidah I use an S-hackamore, bridle/halter combination, beta flex reins, beta flex breast collar, Big Horn endurance saddle, Easy Ride stirrups, neoprene cincha, woolback pad or Supracor coolgrip pad, ankle boots on the hind.  I use Stowaway and Snugpax packs.

What kind of shoes do you use on your horse?  Pads?  Easyboots?   She is always barefoot, except on endurance rides and long conditioning rides when I use Easyboots, and now also the Epics.

What kind of problems have you encountered?    One time I put on a boot that was too small and the strap kind of bruised her; Linda Fleming helped me foam on a boot without the strap, which saved the horse and my ride.  Occasionally, I do lose a boot on a ride.  With the new Epics that has not happened, so I think I will use those more and more.

What was the worst or most severe injury your horse has had?   Now and then Saidah would colic a little after the ride was over.  It always happened when she was in heat, and one time at a ride in Albuquerque (1999), she went down, totally unexpectedly, due to colic, while I was riding her.  I somehow knew she would pull through it, and she did: by the time we got back to camp, people were looking for a sick horse and could not find one.  From then on I always put her on Regumate before and during the event, and so far so good.

How did you work thru it?   We kept her moving.  Actually, we made her trot ever so slowly behind a pick-up truck, with me sitting on the back holding the lead, all the way to the vet check., where Barney treated her.

Describe the best ride you ever had on your horse?   Oh, I have had so many good ones. Our favorite ones are the multi-day rides, and we have had some very beautiful and exciting  ones at Bryce and the Grand Canyon.

Describe the worst day you ever had with your horse?   The worst day was probably the day in 1999 when she suddenly went down due to colic.

What was your most humbling experience?   There have been many.   Looking back, I think that day she had that colic problem, was probably the most humbling, because I did not see it coming.  It is a scary thing when your horse is trotting fine and suddenly crumbles underneath you.  I still ask myself why I did not see any clues beforehand.

What lessons have you learned along the way that you feel are the most important?    I always have to remind myself not to count on anything and just hope we finish in good shape. In other words: I don't make plans.  While riding, I hope I will stay focused and not miss any subtle aberrations and pay attention to eating, drinking, etc. Also, on a multi-day ride, if there is any doubt in my mind that the horse should not be ridden the following day, even though it is sound, I know I should not go.  There is always another day.

Where does your horse live?  The horse lives with her buddies in our back yard.  The corrals are dirt. They have a few acres.

What kind of environment did your horse spend the first few years of its life in?    She came as a yearling and had been with her dam, I suppose in a corral.

What are your horses strengths?  Weaknesses?   She is tough - loves to keep going and get the job done.  She does not take care of herself when she is in heat, and I have to watch her hind legs.  A few years ago she developed annular  ligament problems in her hind legs, which ultimately led to surgery. The surgery was done in 2003, and she has successfully finished several rides since then. I try to ride her a few times a week to prevent new adhesions.

What advice do you have for new riders?   Go slowly! Talk to someone who has done many rides and listen.  Take care of your horse first! Don't get carried away.  Ask a lot of questions. Again, go slowly!

Looking back, what would you do differently?   Not too much, except I would have taken her to the vet sooner when she developed problems in her hind legs.

What do you feel you did right?   Her training and conditioning. (Slow.)

What was your highest goal for your horse?  Did you achieve it?   To do several multi-day rides a year.  I think I have.

Describe your horse's personality?  How is it like or unlike yours?   She is a fighter and "endures".  She is kind of bossy.  Maybe she got that from me?

What kinds of rides do you enjoy the most?    Multi-days - by far.

Describe your electrolyte protocol.   I electrolyte during the ride after the horse has drunk, usually with Lyte-Now.  If it is a hot day, she gets a full dosage; otherwise half.  We repeat this several times a day. At the vet checks, I use Enduro-lyte, which I can mix easier while on the ground.  She gets about a scoop full, mixed with Pro-Bios.

Is there anything special about your nutrition program you attribute to your success?   Nothing special, but I like to offer the horse a smorgasbord at the vet checks: beet pulp, carrots, equine senior, rolled oats, and both grass hay and alfalfa.  If she does not want to eat, I ask a neighbor to swap some hay with me; usually, dinner at the neighbor's is better.  But they have to eat.  And, of course, having added the Regumate to the program has made a world of difference.

Are there any major changes you've made to your nutrition program (i.e., changed from one hay to another, added something special) that you feel made a noticeable improvement or solved a problem?'   No.

What kind of supplements (if any) do you use?   I use Accel vitamins.

Do you give any kind of joint products?     Almost all her life she has been on a powdered joint product, until the last two years when I switched her to inject able glucosamine.

How far do you usually travel to rides?   Four-  to six-hundred miles one way.

Do you go to many rides outside of your region?   About half the rides we attend are outside of the region.

Name three people involved in the sport of endurance that you look up to, and why?   I think Marilyn McCoy is an excellent rider who rates her horses very well.  I have seen her ride to win and I have seen her come in at the end of the pack.  She knows what she is doing. The same is true for Adele Youmans - she listens to her horse. The best juniors have been the Eiland kids, who NEVER complain and are great fun.  There are many others I look up to, mostly people who listen to their horses and for whom the horse comes first. Anyone who practices that is high on my list.

Did you have a mentor or first trail partner?  Tell us about him/her/them.   No, but I did learn a lot from Roger Taylor and Neal Glass (when I first started) in 1975.

In choosing your next horse, what would you look for?   Good legs, feet, disposition.

 Her first little trail ride (at age 4) was in our neighborhood in a small canyon.  The weather was perfect when we left, but suddenly the skies turned pitch black and we were surrounded by lightening flashes and thunder.  Needless to say: this was not a good time to be on a very green horse.  However, Saidah did not flinch and from then on I knew I could trust her.

On her very first ride, a 25-miler, I was asked to do the controlled start.  I knew I could trust her, but the people in the ride did not think much of this idea.  However, she was as calm and pleasant as she could be and I got many kudos afterwards.

I have ridden her almost exclusively in Easy Boots.  This came about when I discovered she would go lame after each shoeing, not right away, but after five miles or so.  It took me a while to figure out there was a correlation between the shoeing and the lameness (another one of those humbling moments); we switched to Easy Boots and now Epics, which solved that problem.

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