Tevis Forum 2015

My Tevis Buckle- 26 ★ TEVIS FORUM 2014 Robyn Peters , New Zealand / UAE T he DREAM-I really can’t remember when I first heard about Tevis, but it planted a seed that was just waiting for the right conditions to burst into reality. Fast forward to 2013, and as time was marching on (and let’s face it, my teeth aren’t getting shorter) I’d better start making plans if I ever wanted to ride in the Tevis. The Search Begins-November/ December: I searched online Tevis Cup and found their Facebook page and the Official Western States Trail Foundation site. I posted saying that I was basically looking for a horse for the next ride and detailing what I could bring to the package. Being from little ole New Zealand I was used to hard work and could contribute to the household chores, and I had a small budget fromworking in the UAE to use toward a horse and entry fees. After waiting over a month, there was NO RESPONSE! OMG! How was I going to be able to tick the Tevis ride off my bucket list? In January/February I tried again. This time I had an answer from the President who di- rected me to a few people. One of whomwas Linda Glazer, a hardworking member of the Tevis Committee. E-mail Tag-After Linda and I had played e-mail tag with each other, and she had recommended a few people to contact, I was no closer to my dream as they all had their horses accounted for. Okay, so I will age grace- fully without competing at the birthplace of Endurance. With Linda and I becoming firm e-friends, she said that if I didn’t have any suc- cess, I was welcome to come and stay with her for a month as she and her husband ran the Foresthill Vet check. Brave woman. I thanked her for the offer, but said I would keep trying. Decision Time-Okay. No horse for me this year. I contacted Linda and said I would come anyway if the invitation was still open. Every country you go to has different methods, and I wanted to see what was hap- pening. I was more than happy to be on the ground at the vet check and learn all I could from Linda,…BUT… just in case, I started training around May. Swimming, exercis- ing (giving up the HABIT once again) and booking my ticket to good ole USA. I arrived 3rd of July in the evening and woke to the IndependenceDay celebrations on the fourth. Training Continues-Lucky for me, Linda and Roger Yohe live at the bottom of a hill 7/10ths of a mile long. Early the next morning, I decided to walk up. As you can imagine, there are no hills in the desert. Halfway up, I thought, “OMG! I’m not as fit as I thought I was!” I made it to the top, finally, but coming home was much easier. Roger, Linda and I set off on Saturday for a small friendly pre-Tevis ride, from Foresthill backwards through the smallest and last of the canyons on the Tevis Trail. It was nice to be on a horse two days after arriving. Linda had also arranged forme to trainwith a neighbor a few times aweek duringmy time there.Thank you, Fred Emigh! I rode with Fred Monday and Wednesday, and he said we would train on the Trail on Friday. Little did I know it was over 40 miles of training? Ouch. I’m a bit stubborn though, so I didn’t let on that I hadn’t ridden that far in a while. I was flagging a bit at the end, but I must have been alright as when we got home Fred said, “I’ll ring you about next week’s schedule.”YAY. (Keepwalk- ing that hill, Robyn!)We trained every week, small parts during the week and a different bit of the trail at the end of eachweek. By the end, I had ridden most of the trail bar the first bit, so I was ecstatic. A Miracle Occurs-Hanging out with Linda and Roger, doing ma chores around the house, and competing in a limited- distance ride with Roger (luxury distance as Roger calls it: 25miles) alongwith anticipating experiencing the workings of the Tevis Cup was my dreamholiday.Throughout this time Linda tried to help me find a mount for the ride, but it wasn’tmeant to be. HOWEVER… a week before the start, Linda tried one more contact. As it happened, the day before her daughter had pulled out of the ride as she had University commitments. Peg, an amazing, wonderful, kind and very busy woman with an equally beautiful family, talked to me and agreed to watch me ride to see if I gelled with her horse. I went up the next day and rode with her around her property while falling in love with the beautiful RT Johanna. After this, Peg said that I could enter with Johanna if I would like to and that we would ride to- gether as a team. What more could I want? Experienced people to gowith (Pegwas trying for her 10th buckle and her sonwas trying for his 4th), an experienced horse (this was her 7thTevis), and an adrenaline high to getme to the start line.We agreed on terms andOMG! I was going to attempt the Tevis Cup! Roger took my entry in on Tuesday; I trained with Peg and family that week and had a practice TEV I S I NTERNAT I ONAL R I DERS 2014 had a large contingent of International Riders. Buckle recipients from left to right: Juan recaldo, Ecuador; Robyn Peters, New Zealand/UAE; Hiromi Kitaike, Japan; Ilan Dvir, Israel; Yam Dvir, Israel; Danny Grant, Canada; Stephane Chazel, France; Sophie Mauritsch, Austria; Rose Ross, Australia; Lene Hammeren, Norway. (continued on page 68)