Endurance History: Our 1st AERC Competition: Eastern Sierra Classic 30 mile Limited Distance

Our First AERC Competition:  Eastern Sierra Classic 30 Mile Limited Distance

Bridgeport, CA. 

August, 2006

In August, 2006, my horse, Caartouche, and I entered and finished our first AERC race, the Eastern Sierra Classic limited distance (30 miles) in Bridgeport, CA, which is practically in my backyard; about one hour drive time from where I live in Mammoth Lakes, CA.

I want to state my opinion regarding why I refer to AERC (American Endurance Ride Conference) competitions as races versus rides. (Although I also refer to them as rides sometimes.) There is quite a lot of controversy among AERC members as to whether the competitions are races or rides.  I refer to them as races because of the fact that it is a timed event/competition.  Also, as I stated in my first blog, from my past experiences as a runner in distances from 10k's to marathons, when I entered a running competition (IMO) I am entering a race; not a run.  I am not racing to win because I am not that kind of a runner (fast).  I am a mid packer.  In my endurance competitions, my general finishing position is a front runner in the mid pack.

My first race was excellent.  The difficult part for me was the night before the race.  I had never camped with my horse, and he was tied to the horse trailer right next to a mare that my friend, Megan, would be riding.  These horses knew each other, but had never spent the night next to each other tied to a horse trailer.  I hardly slept.  We (My husband, Peter, and I), were set up comfortably to sleep in the shell of the truck, but I was so nervous I hardly slept.  I kept the back window of the shell open all night and regularly looked out to check on the horses.  They did just fine. 
Since this was my first race, Megan advised that we should wait at least 10 minutes to start, and we did.    Both  of our horses completed the race successfully in a ride time of  5:03.

Unfortunately, I did not take a lot of photos in my first 7 years of endurance riding.  The top reasons I love this ride:
1)  It is less than 45 miles from where I live.
2) VERY beautiful, mountain riding in the Eastern Sierras of California.
3)  The base camp is awesome:  green grass and a creek flowing on the property.
4)  If you do the 50 mile distance, it is 2 loops with different trails (figure 8)  with the lunch stop at basecamp.   The first loop is quite technical, but I like that.  Makes for a good endurance horse and rider team.   
5)   The second loop, which is also the LD loop, is technical in a different way.  It does not have as many rocks/boulders, hill climbs and hill descents as the first loop, but it has more creek crossings, bridges, and gate openings and closings. 
6)   There is good trout fishing.  There is a fishing contest as part of this ride for those not riding.  
7)   It is managed by Jackie Bumgardner and Gretchen Montgomery.  Jackie and Gretchen put on one of the best rides I have attended.  Well marked trails, great volunteers and vets,  nice awards, great dinner, but most importantly, a scenic, beautiful, technically challenging trail.

A few more photos I took.

Our set up

 Tacked up and ready to race

 

Posing

 

 After nearly 3000 AERC endurance miles, the Eastern Sierra Classic is still one of  my top 3 AERC rides, along with Tevis and the Bryce multi-day rides/races.  It was a great introduction/experience for me to the world of endurance competition and continued horsemanship.