Sunday August 1 2010
Tevis: It is just another hundred-mile trail.
But there are some things about it that make you gasp and grab at your heart, clutch at your throat as the words choke off, and squeeze the tears out and make even a grown man cry.
Things like:
Watching a phenomenal horse like Heraldic float above the ground at the vet in.
The flowers someone put out on the trail where the horse died last year.
The horse who gave all she had on her first 100 mile ride, but was pulled at 94 miles.
Watching someone with so much drive that she is able to plan to ride Tevis before she can walk on a shattered leg, and watching her ride across the finish line, and still be more proud of her horse than she is of herself.
Watching someone with so much drive and passion for this ride that she comes back year after year after year, cross the finish line once again with a big smile on her face at 4 in the morning.
Feeling the staggering amazement and rush of gratitude you feel for a horse when he crosses the finish line at 4:58 AM, looking like he could go on, and the vet says he is fit to continue.
More things like:
Bill Patrick, one of the 5 finishers of the very first Tevis ride in 1955, a guest of honor at the awards ceremony, receiving his first Tevis buckle from Mike Pickett: "They didn't give silver buckles back then, so we're giving you one now."
Julie Suhr, the 'First Lady of Endurance' (and 22-time Tevis finisher) presenting to her daughter Barbara White her 3000-mile Tevis buckle with diamonds (!!!).
Garrett Ford, who first finished the Tevis when he was 13 years old, now 26 years later choking up during his Haggin Cup speech.
Tevis: it is just another hundred miles of trail...
...but then it's not.
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