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December 8, 2006
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The Friday Flyer Assistant Editor
At the age of 55, Terri Castellano is officially a senior citizen; nevertheless, she looks youthful and is more active than most women half her age. On November 25 she took first place overall in a 50-mile endurance race on horseback known as the Turkey Trot Ride, competing against 125 other riders and horses.
Coodinated by the American Endurance Ride Council (AERC), the race in Bonita, in San Diego County, is considered one of the hardest endurance courses in the U.S. because of the mountainous terrain. Calling it a “very intense” race, Terri explains it took six hours and 14 minutes to complete the course, much of it picking and trotting through rocky uphill stretches, other times running full out on her horse, “Tabbous Flame.”
During such a long race, the horse must receive three vet checks throughout the day in order to continue. Terri says she got Tabbous Flame as a stallion when he was eight years old and had to train him herself to be a riding horse. He is one of two endurance horses and four other horses she boards at a ranch in Anza. This was Terri’s 10th endurance race, but she also competes in other horse events like barrel racing, gymkhana and ride and tie.
In the latter, she and her fiancé, Jim Fredette, have competed together five times, taking 4th place in a world competition last June. Although the sport of ride and tie has been in existence since 1971, it is a relatively unknown sport that combines trail running, endurance riding – and most of all, strategy, explains the website, rideandtie.org.
The object is to get all three team members (two humans and one horse) across a 20 to 100 mile cross-country course by alternating riding and running. One team member starts out running, the other starts on the horse and rides down the trail as far as he or she thinks his or her partner can run (or walk) and still keep up a decent pace. At that point the rider dismounts, ties the horse to a tree or fence post, and continues down the trail on foot.
The team member who started on foot gets to the horse, unties it, mounts and rides to catch the partner up ahead. When they get to their running team member they can either stop and exchange, or ride further up the trail and tie the horse and then continue running. When, where and how a team exchanges is up to them, and this is where the strategy lies. Terri says she and Jim change off every mile, and when they raced last summer in Cuyamaca, it was over 100 degrees.
“Factor all the strengths and weaknesses of two runners and one horse, along with weather conditions and the topography of the course, and you can understand why ride and tie is as much mental as physical,” say organizers.
Between endurance racing and ride and tie events, the horse isn’t the only one who has to stay in shape. Terri says she not only has to run both her endurance horses 50 miles a week each, she, too, runs to stay in shape and has competed in eight marathons. She is currently training for the Shoreline Marathon in Huntington Beach on February 4.
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