The Trail to the Trail: Preparing for the 100-mile Tevis Ride

TevisCup.org

With spring around the corner, endurance season is kicking into high gear, and it’s time to plan your rides. Is Tevis on your list for this year? Or in the future?

If you are wondering how to prepare for Tevis, think about the trail that will take you and your equine partner to Tevis. Just as the Tevis trail takes you to the finish in Auburn and the coveted Tevis buckle, the Trail to the Trail is what we call the path to take you to the Tevis start. This year, we offer two new opportunities for riders and their mounts to prepare for this historic endurance ride.

In 2025, instead of the Tevis Educational Ride, the Western States Trail Foundation will host two events, a clinic and night ride in late April for those who wish to tip their toes in the water (or just be sure they’ve covered all bases) and a two-day training ride on the Tevis trail in June for those ready to jump in.

Educational Clinic and Night Ride

The Educational Clinic and Night Ride at Cool Hills Ranch on April 26 is the perfect opportunity for rider and horse to learn and practice the skills essential for successfully riding the Tevis. Riders will be instructed about safety, courtesy, and horsemanship appropriate for the Western States 100-mile trail ride, The Tevis Cup, such as:

• Control of the horse for pacing, passing, preparing
• Challenges to plan for to ride the Tevis trail
• Tack evaluation: tack “on or off” at vet checks
• Weather conditions: what to plan and practice for
• Vet stops with crew, vet stops with volunteers
• Trail: technical footing, drop-offs, surface terrain
• Night riding

Your ‘classroom’ will be the large, covered arena located at Cool Hills Ranch, owned by Cris Grey. Your instructors will be highly experienced Tevis riders, led by Erin McChesney, two-time Tevis Cup and Haggin Cup Winner (for best condition), dressage instructor, endurance coach, USEF-WDAA western dressage judge, and NATRC Leisure Judge.

Riders will end this fun day of learning with a relaxing night ride on the beautiful Olmstead trails, located directly behind Cool Hills Ranch. There are no eligibility requirements for the clinic, but safety is our top concern. If your horse is not ready to tie to a horse trailer calmly, spend the day with 30 or more other horses, or be handled by vets and volunteers, maybe next year is a better time for you to participate with your horse. You can also audit the clinic this year.

Space for trailer parking is limited. So, where possible, please plan to share trailers. If you can share with a buddy but come from different directions, Olmstead trailhead offers a nearby opportunity to leave behind one trailer. State Parks parking is $10. For more information and to sign up, go to https://teviscup.org/tevis-education-events-for-2025/

2025 Tevis Training Ride

On June 13-15, we will host a supported Tevis Training Ride over the toughest 50-mile stretch of the Tevis trail over two days– from Robinson Flat to the Lower Drivers Flat trailhead located two miles above the Tevis Francisco’s vet check. We require that all training ride entrants meet the same eligibility requirements as Tevis riders need to enter the ride (have previously completed The Tevis Cup 100 Mile Ride OR accumulated at least 300 miles on sanctioned rides of at least 35 miles/day in length). Entries open on April 1.

This veterinary-monitored and fully supported training ride will offer you the opportunity to ride two technical sections of the trail close to the pace you hope to ride during the actual Tevis ride. This is an effective way to learn if you and your horse are ready to take on the ultimate endurance challenge – 2025 Tevis.

You will camp at the beautiful Chicken Hawk Staging Area/Campground. Horse water is plentiful. Plus, we will have a camp kitchen with delicious food. There will be plenty of time to visit in the evenings to share ideas and to get your questions answered.

Day 1 - you and your horse will be shuttled to Robinson Flat, the location of the first one-hour vet check during the Tevis ride. You will ride about 26 miles through the canyons and finish your day back at our Chicken Hawk basecamp. Along the trail we will have water and snacks at key stops – Last Chance and Deadwood. Veterinarians will examine your horse to see if it is fit to continue just as they would during Tevis. If your horse is unable to meet criteria, we will haul your horse back to basecamp.

Day 2 - you will ride from base camp to the Lower Drivers Flat trailhead about 24 miles. At the end of your ride, we will transport you and your horse back to Chicken Hawk Staging Area basecamp.

We hope you will take advantage of this invaluable opportunity!

For more information and to sign up, go to https://teviscup.org/tevis-education-events-for-2025/

Australians embark on Pan American Highway trek riding horses from Argentina to Alaska

ABC.net.au - Full Article

By Maddelin McCosker
1 March 2025

Australian Ben Hann and Canadian Olivia Cazes are riding horses from Argentina to Alaska along the world's longest highway.

It will take seven years to complete the 30,000-kilometre Pan American trek through 14 countries.

It only took Ben Hann and Olivia Cazes a few days to start an epic journey that will take them seven years to complete — riding horses from Argentina to Alaska.

They will spend the better part of decade transiting 14 countries along the world's longest highway — the Pan American.

It spans a distance that would take 26 hours by plane or a month of driving.

"It very much depends on what seasons we hit and where," Mr Hann, an experienced stockman and horse trainer from Darwin, said...

Hitting the longest road

Arising from a conversation at a Christmas party last year, within days the friends had booked their flights to Buenos Aires, arriving on New Year's Day.

Mr Hann and Ms Cazes spent the first week of 2025 in the Argentinian capital before making their way south to Ushuaia, a town known as the end of the world.

They embarked on the first leg of the trek on February 2 after three weeks in Ushuaia buying horses and preparing for their journey.

Read more here:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-02/australian-treks-pan-american-highway-on-horseback/104966966

Horses Have a Genetic Glitch That Turned Them Into Super Athletes

ZMEScience.com - Full Article

This one gene mutation helped horses evolve unmatched endurance.

by Tibi Puiu
April 4, 2025

At first glance, it looked like a genetic error — so severe it should have crippled the animal. But instead, it helped turn horses into nature’s long-distance runners.

Researchers studying the DNA of nearly 200 mammal species noticed something strange in the genome of horses: a mutation in a gene that should have shut down a key cellular process. The gene, KEAP1, is vital for defending cells from the chemical stress caused by high levels of oxygen metabolism. Yet somehow, horses weren’t just surviving with this broken gene — they were thriving. A Deal With the Devil, Perfected

“To make energy, we’ve made a deal with the devil,” Gianni Castiglione, an evolutionary biologist at Vanderbilt University, told NPR. “To, basically, have a slow burning fire in our cells.”

That fire powers our lives, turning oxygen into energy in the form of ATP. But it also produces reactive oxygen species (ROS), toxic molecules that can damage DNA, proteins, and cell membranes. For most animals, this presents a trade-off: make too much energy, and cells get overwhelmed by damage. But horses, it seems, found a workaround...

Read more here:
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/horses-have-a-genetic-glitch-that-turned-them-into-super-athletes/