The Tale of Two Sisters, Part II
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Auburn, Calif. -
Out of the 199 riders and horses to start the 2005 Tevis Cup Endurance Horse Race, only 86 teams crossed the finish line.
Bobbie Pomroy of Montana City and her Arabian mare, Hopper, were one of the teams to complete the grueling 100-mile ride from Tahoe to Auburn, Calif. They placed 36th.
Pomroy, 58, rode in the Tevis Cup to fulfill a promise she made four years ago to her dying sister and closest friend, Wanda Miller.
“My daughter gave me this necklace to wear on the race,” Pomroy said. “She said the cross is to keep me safe and the heart in the middle is Wanda.”
Miller, 55, formerly of Fairfield, was training her horse, Hopper, for the Tevis Cup, when she was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Before Miller died 5 months later, Pomroy promised her sister that she would carry out her dream of riding Hopper in the Tevis Cup. Pomroy had little experience with horses. She spent the next four years learning to ride, training Hopper and qualifying for the Tevis.
Several days before the July 23 race start, Pomroy’s family and friends from across the country gathered at Robie Equestrian Park and the Tevis Cup starting line in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They came to provide moral support, act as her race crew and celebrate Miller’s dream.
At the meetings the day before the race, riders learned about trail conditions and etiquette.
Chuck Mather, the Tevis Chairman, warned riders about the infamous swinging bridge, “Don’t put any more then 3 horses on the bridge at a time. DO NOT let your horse turn around on the bridge. Keep moving forward no matter what. If that bridge gets swinging and twisting there will be trouble.”
The riders were also told that this Tevis would be the hottest in years. Because of the forecasted 100 degree temperatures, veterinarians announced that all horses must have a pulse of 60 - 64 beats per minute or less at certain checkpoints before they would be allowed to continue.
The mass race start was controlled chaos. From 4:30 to 5 am, riders and their horses headed to the starting line in a nose-to-tail traffic jam on a one lane dirt road. It was still dark. Riders are not allowed to use flashlights for fear of scaring the horses. Dust kicked up from hundreds of pounding hooves created a thick, choking fog that forced many riders to wear respirators or bandanas.
Wanda Miller’s husband, Bill, and her son, Jack Mitchell, led Hopper up to the starting line with Pomroy in the saddle. As the line slowly crept forward, other riders tried to squeeze their way into the front of the pack.
Most endurance horses are Arabians or Arab crosses. They whinnied, snorted, and pranced in place. Riders yelled at each other to stay clear of their horses.
A woman on a black stallion slipped in front of Pomroy in line. A glowstick hung from the horse’s tail, creating an ominous red light warning that the horse kicks. Pomroy pulled off the road for a minute, putting some safe distance between Hopper and the stallion. Then they trotted ahead through a sea of horses, disappearing in a cloud of red dust.
“The nose-to-tail traffic continued for the first 15 miles,” Pomroy said. “Then we finally started to spread out a little.”
Next, riders and horses encountered deep mud bogs at high elevations due to snow melt.
At one point, Hopper tripped and almost fell. Pomroy was thrown forward in the saddle, bruising her thigh.
“At least she didn’t go down,” she said.
At the “Elephant’s Trunk,” Pomroy said the narrow trail was startling. “It was just as wide as the horse and then slid off into nothing. But Hopper did great.”
Hundreds of people with buckets of water, trash bags full of hay and pockets stuffed with carrots lined the race trail waiting for their riders and horses to enter the crew-assisted checkpoints. Crews have just one hour to cool down and get food into their horses and riders.
The horses are examined by veterinarians at 19 points along the route. They check hydration, gut sounds and pulse and evaluate the horses for lameness.
Pomroy was thinking of others when she entered the checkpoint at Robinson Flats.
“I just saw someone break her knee,” she said. “This woman was riding around Cougar Rock and there was a pointed boulder sticking out and she caught her knee on it as the horse ran by. She was crying. Her friend riding with her went back to get help.”
By 36 miles into the race, 52 riders and horses had already been pulled by vets or quit on their own. Pomroy said she was right where she wanted to be.
“I wanted to take my time getting here so I’d have a horse left for the rest of the race,” she said.
She was thrilled when vets said Hopper had the lowest pulse they’d seen in the race - 36 beats per minute.
Next, horses and riders traversed several canyons, the Devil’s Thumb, Deadwood, and Eldorado, during the heat of the day.
“I bet it was 120 degrees in there,” Pomroy said. “Hopper started to act funny so I got off and ran on foot down the Thumb and then back up the other side. Then I ran back down into Deadwood. I think Wanda had something to do with making me run the canyons...”
Finally, after Pomroy ran almost 15 miles on foot, she said she told Hopper it was her turn to work and she rode for the rest of the race.
Sixty-nine miles into the ride, vets once again told Pomroy that Hopper had the lowest pulse they’d seen - 44 beats per minute.
Pomroy rode Hopper across the wide American River in the dark. “They put glowsticks out across the river for us to follow so we wouldn’t get into deep water,” she said. “The water was up over my ankles.”
The last 6 hours or so of Pomroy’s race, she rode through the woods in the dark. “I just stuck close to this woman riding a mustang in front of me. I was pretty nervous. It was so dark but she just kept saying, ‘trust your horse, trust your horse’.”
The Montana rider and horse crossed the finish line on Sunday at 3:28 am. They took a victory lap around McCann Stadium like all of the finishers. Only a dozen spectators and officials were on hand at that hour, but Pomroy’s husband, Jim, and Wanda’s husband, Bill, and the rest of their family and friends were there waiting.
“I thought about Wanda the entire way,” Pomroy said, crying. “She was with me. She would have been so proud of Hopper.”
( 3 Votes )
