This is a photograph the ride vet took of Remington and me in front of the assay office in Shakespeare, New Mexico at the finish of the 285 mi. Renegade 5 Day Ride. Don't we look happy to be done?

My Icelandic horse Remington passed the three thousand career mile mark at Randy Eiland's Renegade Ride in New Mexico a week or two ago. This ride covers 285 miles over five days, from Texas accross southern New Mexico to near the Arizona border. Miscellaneous things I recall (from Renegade, not the whole three thousand miles):

Day I, a fifty five miler, started near El Paso, Texas and followed much of the same ground we covered in a 100 miler last November. Most of the ride was sandy with an enormous number of rocks in the hills near the end. Many riders were troubled throughout the five days about how to protect their horses' feet from rocks with pads or Easyboots without having problems with sand intrusion. Temperatures reached the 90's. I rode with my buddy Richard Fuess and his stallion Jake. Jake's easy moving gaits are so beautiful to watch. We were very impressed with the near infinite variety of thorny bushes and cacti defining this part of New Mexico. Our rig arrived at camp later than we did, no doubt helped by the fact I had disabled both the brakes and the lights of Richard's 38 ft. trailer by accidentally pulling the plug off the connection cable earlier. Many people helped us with blankets, hay and especially beer.

Day II, a sixty miler, started with an intense rock field for the first ten or fifteen miles. There were some hills although the whole day, like the other days, had a cumulative climb of only around 1,500 ft. according to my altimeter watch. I began to count the rocks. I think there were 9,028,806 rocks on the trail overall by my calculations. Randy may have a better count. Assistant vet Nancy Cryder (sp.?) was very friendly, helpful and generally adorable. (Head vet Barney Fleming is always those things too but maybe too grizzled to call adorable.) We saw a lot of dead cows. We rode into Columbus, the site of Pancho Villa's infamous raid, after dark. I was too tired to go raiding the bars accross the border with most of the other riders.

Day III, also a sixty miler, mostly followed the border. US Army units were constructing a new road and were very accomodating about stopping their machinery to let us pass. Still, John Teeter had a big adventure which Stephanie will probably describe in her next post. After lunch we climbed some more hills with more rocks. I began to name the rocks. Ugly names. The weather started to get stormy. There was rain and even snow at the finish for some people. Short little Remington looked so cute getting down on his knees to reach the water at the bottom of the tank two miles from the finish, I took out my camera to take a picture. It broke. Watering your horse within two mile of the finish, by the way, is an example of the kind of horse management that works at multi-days. You have to do things that may not be necessary today but will help the horse for the next day. When Barney finished checking Rem for completion, I told him he had just vetted in the world's first 3,000 mile Icelandic endurance horse. I sure wished my camera hadn't died twenty minutes earlier.

Day IV, a fifty five miler, headed back to the Mexican border with a climb through the rocks. The border here consists of a two strand barbwire cow fence with a cowpath on our side. Not very intimidating. By noontime, I began to talk to the rocks. Ada Carr was very helpful at the lunch vet check like she was every day. She began to sound like she wants an Icelandic, too. We rode through Little Hatchita, an interesting mining ghost town. I finished after dark again and had a temper tantrum over something minor, thus violating my cardinal principle that any critical comments at a ride should be expressed in a brief, calm manner and be accompanied by either a constructive suggestion or offer of assistance to busy ride personnel. Oh well, consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, or something like that per Emerson.

Day V, another fifty five miler, started with another climb through rocks. The rocks began to talk to me. It's good there wasn't a Day VI. Later, Kat Swigart from our list said to me that she hadn't noticed any rocks. I remember feeling glad that her father was at the ride to take her home. After a long day we finished at the ghost town of Shakespeare, a registered National Historical Site with a 150 year history. After Nancy vetted Remington in, the town's owner and last remaining resident Janaloo Hill gave me a personal tour while Nancy played with Rem. I was having too much fun to notice that my trailer ride to our final base camp at the fairgrounds in Lordsburg had just left. We were now faced with at least a one hour wait for the next available trailer as it was getting dark, windy and cold. So I re-tightened the girth, climbed back up and said to Remington, "Shall we?" He voted with his feet and trotted down the hill to Lordsburg. As we proceeded through Lordsburg looking for the fairgrounds, I observed that many neighborhoods needed urban renewal but was glad most people kept their dogs tied up. I finally stopped a drunk on a bicycle at an intersection to ask directions. He told me to turn right and go on down the road until I hit the fairgrounds, right behind the Fiesta Club. It's funny what non horse people use as landmarks. We got to camp after dark just in time to go to the awards banquet .......... at the Fiesta Club.

The banquet was wonderful. Sharon Dumas was the overall winner on time, overall Best Condition winner and a very happy girl. Randy had humorous things to say about everybody and passed out lovely Tarahumara Indian pottery cooking bowls as ride awards to the twenty seven horse and rider teams, including us, who managed to complete all five days. Randy's rides, like other multi-day rides, go to the core of what endurance riding is all about. I just didn't have the heart to tell him that his Renegade Ride was the site of the completion of the AERC's first 5 mile point to point Limited Distance Ride by Remington and me.

John Parke
Solvang CA

See the story on Endurance.Net

We've just returned from the Mt. Charleston endurance ride north of Las Vegas, Nevada. I took both Skjoldur and Remington. The idea was to enter both horses in the 75 mile ride on Saturday. Although Remington has done 100 milers before, Skjoldur had never gone more than 55 miles in one day. This ride is also known for its constant ascents and descents (one rider told me she would bet there isn't more than 5 feet of flat terrain on the whole ride), so I thought it would be a good test to see if the horses are fit enough for Tevis.

I didn't have a rider for Skjoldur, so I ran an ad on the endurance list! There were many responses from people who wanted to try an Icelandic horse. Lori Cox from Flagstaff, Arizona, was the first to contact me so we made arrangements to meet at the ride. Lori has ridden endurance for years on her two Arabs. Lori told me she lives near someone with an Icelandic. Anybody know who this might be?

The original plan was to get to the ride site at noon Friday so the horses and I could get some rest. Oh well. After spending a full day on business in LA, we finally arrived in camp at 3:30 in the morning Saturday. I fed the horses and changed clothes because I still needed to see the vet for the pre-ride exam. Start time was at 5:30 a.m. Lori came out of the darkness at 4:30 a.m. and asked if I was John Parke. I said, "I think so." How's that for a blind date!

I made some oatmeal for breakfast but never had time to eat it. Once we sorted out what tack goes where in the dark and introduced Lori to Skjoldur, we set off in a rush about ten minutes past the start time. What an auspicious beginning. The entire ride was single track through wilderness. The first part went up and down over seventeen ridges before the climbing got serious. The trail twisted back and forth thousands of times through the pinon pines and juniper. It was very exciting to do this at full speed. Lori said, "I've got to get one of these." She and Skjoldur even led Rem and me for the first ten miles. We eventually reached a beautiful meadow surrounded by huge, gnarled ponderosa pines. The view of the nearby snow-streaked granite peaks was spectacular. We then headed back to the first vet check.

Each of the four vet checks was back in camp after a three mile climb. This ascent into the vet check makes it harder for the horses to pulse down. The mandatory hold times wouldn't start until the horses reached criteria of 64 beats per minute. (If you don't reach criteria in 30 minutes you and your horse are pulled.) Remington took a few minutes to get down to 64 while Skjoldur reached criteria right away. Lori told me he checked in a 48! It went on like this all day. Skjoldur must have a very big ticker.

Lori was a great sport all day. She spent a lot of time talking with Skjoldur. She loved his super smooth ride. We trotted most of the time because the rocks, sand and constant ups,downs and turns kept us from cantering. Lori even got off and ran some of the time like I do. Me, I kept falling asleep in the saddle.

We still had a 13 mile and then an 8 mile loop as it neared dark. Lori suggested that we put Easyboots on the horses since Skjoldur was beginning to act a little ouchy from all the rocks. We put them on and it made all the difference in the world. We did the 13 mile loop through some difficult canyons in an hour and a half. We had done each loop at least one mile an hour faster than the previous loop. Unfortunately the last loop started down a steep ravine in the pitch dark. We walked this on the horses. We both figured we were better off on them than off since we couldn't see anything. When we hit the trail back to camp it was time to fly. We got in around 11:15 p.m. in seventh and eighth place (of course, only eight horses finished). The horses passed their post ride vet check in great shape. Skjoldur had done his first 75 miler. Lori helped me put the blankets on and feed the horses. Lori told me her friends said she was crazy to want to go 75 miles on a strange horse. I told her they were right. I gave her a hug, congratulated her and said goodbye. I went to bed at midnight and slept very, very soundly.

John Parke

Hi John, as I always have "problems" with other riders and sometimes vets (I'm not doing endurance with Soti but other kind of "long-distance-riding competition" - slower speed but finding the way using a map) because Soti has often rather high "breathing rates" I was really looking forward to your answer to Hope's question - but now I'm "confused".

You said: "they receive full body clips, including the face, before every endurance ride and even during lulls between races if they are going on serious conditioning rides. Remington has been clipped at least once a month for the last three years."

How can you do that? Don't you have a winter when it's cold and/or wet? Do you keep him in a stable when it's raining or is he (almost always) covered by a blanket?

You said: I have heard about panting in Icelandics but have not observed anything excessive in my horses.

I also know few (!!) Icelandics that never show that panting - without any difference of being "conditioned" or not - but with Soti I can ride and ride and ride ... - he will be "panting". (Well, I don't clip him).

Hello Ursula,

We live in a relatively mild climate. I cover Remington with a waterproof, breathable insulated blanket when it is rainy or particularly cold. This is a minor inconvenience.

A couple of years ago a young lady brought the Icelandic she was riding over to me and me if I knew what was wrong with it. The horse was breathing really hard and had an elevated pulse when I slapped a heart rate monitor on it. It had also been galloped for the last half hour, had a heavy winter coat and was wearing a noseband cranked really tight. Under those adverse circumstances no reasonable person could have come to any conclusions about that horse's respiratory system or the breed's breathing ability in general.

Three months ago while I was giving Remington a little break, I starting bringing Skjoldur back into condition so that I could campaign him this year as well. One afternoon we rode up a trail which climbs 3,200 feet in six miles. He was really huffing and puffing. Since he hadn't been clipped for a few months, I couldn't tell if his heavy coat was the problem or whether he was still a little out of shape. So I clipped him and went back the next week. He did much better.

My point is that you have to isolate all of the potential variables before you can judge the breed's, or even a particular horse's, inherent respiratory ability. My two horses which I use for endurance are compared at vet checks not to other Icelandics but to the couple of thousand Arabian horses which have been specifically conditioned for endurance racing in this country. Yesterday both horses completed an endurance ride featuring 9,270 feet of cumulative elevation gain according to my altimeter watch, the most I've ever measured for a fifty mile ride. We galloped in at the finish, passing four other horses in the last mile and a half. Neither horse displayed any unusally heavy breathing at any point. (Skjoldur's only problem was that he kept tolting when he would be trotted out at vet checks; the boy needs more training for this at home.)

Hope asked me what I do to combat heat and whether vets at endurance rides were knowledgeable about the "special respiration" of Icelandics. I don't know whether Icelandics as whole have a breathing problem or not. I just know I've never seen it in Icelandics which have been conditioned and clipped to put them on an equal footing with other horses asked to do the same work. I've been told over and over again for the last four years what my horse or Icelandic horses supposedly can't do. I've learned never to apologize for some flaw in Icelandic horses until I'm convinced it really exists.

It sounds from your post that you are doing competitive mounted orienteering on Soti. I would think Icelandics would be perfect for this. I enjoy the personality of older Icelandics and really admire you for giving your 19 year old the chance to share something you like and show what he can do. Please tell us more about your rides. If a little transatlantic detective work might help, I would be glad to try to figure out any specific respiration issues you notice if you don't mind providing more information.

John Parke

Three things make an enormous difference for cooling my Icelandics. One, they receive full body clips, including the face, before every endurance ride and even during lulls between races if they are going on serious conditioning rides. Remington has been clipped at least once a month for the last three years. Second, they do a lot of hard conditioning work in the heat and hills. Skjoldur has only raced at multidays as a mount for other members of my family but has been conditioned for a good two years. Third, I use a sponge and scoop to wet them down at water stops and try to avoid overriding them. Although strategy number one is a response to the unique hairiness of Icelandics, strategies two and three are common to Arabs and other horses.

Vets who haven't seen Remington before sometimes think he is too fat or that the tolt he does at first when I trot him out is some kind of lameness. We have had no problem with vets who have seen him more than once or twice. I don't mean to sound stupid or rude but I am not sure I am knowledgeable about Icelandics and their special respiration. I have heard about panting in Icelandics but have not observed anything excessive in my horses. I wonder how much supposedly unique Icelandic rapid breathing is really nothing more than a lack of clipping and adequate conditioning. This would seem to be more a rider preparation issue than some handicap in the breed's cardiovascular system. I apologize in advance if this offends anyone.

John Parke

I don't do Endurance or CTR, although I'd love to - but we are too far north and I don't feel like traveling thousands of km to compete. Still we do conditioning and and riding equivalent to these disciplines and I find Icelandics to be absolutely wonderful for it. How did you make your choice to do Endurance on Iceys instead of Arabs (which everybody seems to favor)?

I'd love to hear some words from you.



A photo of Sorti fra Bitru, my beautiful Icelandic gelding that has quite a story to tell, too.