Desert Bred Arabians and the Davis Family, along with many of our boarders and friends, have had a long romance with this endurance challenge. But our first experience with the Western States Trail wasn't on a horse, it was the 100 mile run.
Rodger Davis (below) initially completed the 100 mile run as a result of a bet in 1978 and he was hooked. Apparently the Tevis bug is contagious, and this virus eventually infected Rodger's daughter, Katie (pictured above, on Zeke), his sister Casey with completions in '81 and '97(pictured at bottom), and Casey's daughter, Elena Macia.
Katie knows how challenging a Tevis completion can be, and the frustration of getting pulled both early in the race and late. She's been pulled at only 10 miles in to as late as 85 miles in. But with two completions to her name, she has the right to brag at having finished as first place junior both times!
But the pride from having such an accomplishment isn't her favorite memory from the ride, "...it's sharing and accomplishing such an incredible feat with my Aunt Casey, cousin Elena and father Rodger."
While Tevis is unique in so many ways - the steep climbs, the heat, the heart pounding drop offs - Katie found her biggest surprise at the end of the ride. "In '98 Zeke trained mostly on the latter part of the trail so he was very familiar with it. After traveling 90 miles, he still had the energy to buck a couple of times during the last 10 miles because he was in a hurry to get home! I was very taken by his spurt of energy after a long, hot day of canyons and trail."
It's been 7 years since Katie last attempted the Tevis Cup, but the lure of the ride is still calling. Would Katie still want to tackle Tevis? "Heck ya! I'm literally chomping at the bit to take on that challenge again. If I could, I'd do it every year!"
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