A group of people stood waiting alongside the track rail at the Middleburg Training Center on Nov. 19—eyes fixed on the entrance. As two horses and riders donned in reflective gear trotted into view on the driveway, a cheer erupted and kept a steady rumble as the riders approached, high-fiving one another as their 3,000 mile journey across the United States came to an end.

Valerie Ashker and her partner Peter Friedman started their journey in Georgetown, Calif., on May 9 on the backs of two off-the-track Thoroughbreds, Solar Express and Primitivo.

“I was bowled over,” said Ashker of their greeting in Virginia. “When you see a crowd and balloons and people with their cameras as you enter in on the track, the only thing you see is that moment right there.”

A huge proponent of the off-the-track Thoroughbred, Ashker came up with the idea to complete a cross-country ride about a year ago. She wanted to make a statement about the versatility of the breed and figured this was a way to garner national attention.

Valerie Ashker (left) and Peter Friedman were greeted with cheers as they rode into the Middleburg Training Center on Primitivo and Solar Express. Photo by Kimberly Loushin

Ashker, the mother of four-star eventer Laine Ashker, has become known for picking talented prospects off the track.

For the trek, she picked two of her own Thoroughbreds. Friedman’s mount Solar Express (Bold Badgett—Proper Look, Properantes), now 17, had a win and two seconds in 10 starts, before a fracture to his right front cannon bone ended his career. Valerie then took him on as an eventing mount, competing to preliminary together for 12 years. By contrast, Valerie’s own mount, Primitivo (Monashee Mountain—Siberian Shamrock, Siberian Summer) had only four unsuccessful starts before starting his eventing career in 2013.

Valerie decided to use Route 50, which stretches 3,000 miles from West Sacramento, Calif., to Ocean City, Md., for her journey. They started their trek at her home in Georgetown, which sits just a few miles off of 50, traveling approximately 20 to 25 miles in a single day with some variation dependent on how they and their horses were feeling that day. Karen Chaton, whose mount Granite Chief+/ is in the American Endurance Ride Conference Hall Of Fame, advised them to take a day off every five days to keep the horses fresh.

“She said, ‘More than anything, you can’t have a format. You really have to listen to your horses,’ so that’s what we did,” said Valerie, 60. “Mainly we’d take a day off, but if they needed two, we took two. Mainly the one day was a cure-all.”

Peter Friedman and Valerie Ashker chatted with fans after they completed their coast-to-coast ride. Photo by Kimberly Loushin

For the majority of the trip, volunteers drove Ashker’s trailer along their route, so that when they set up camp every night they’d have a place to sleep and would be able to transport their horse’s supplies. Twice during the journey Valerie’s parents stepped in as drivers because when they didn’t have anyone who could help, Friedman drove the trailer while Valerie ponied Solar.

“After breaking my clavicle, having to pony Solar through a lot of Kansas was really difficult,” she said. “He’s a great pony-er, but if goats ran down the side of the road or mini donkeys, he’d break loose from me, and we’d be chasing the horses down 50. It was very hard when we didn’t have a driver because Peter would be driving the rig, and we’d be desperate to find someone to drive for us.

“We had a few drivers along the way. It didn’t really work out until my parents came. My dad, it was very important to him to pull into the finish line. It meant a lot to him at 85 to be able to help me and still be able to do something like that,” she continued. “My mom had a little rental car going ahead to find good camping areas five miles at a time. It was everyone bringing their talents together, their heads together and making it happen.

“It came with a lot of ups and downs, but I can’t tell you what it an amazing experience it was in all the positive ways. They’ll never be duplicated again unless we do it again,” said Valerie. “There’s something special about that carefree life and spending it with an animal that you love and that you trust and has always got their ears up in the morning to go. Even when you’re not feeling good, to look out my little RV window and see my horses snorting, ready to go, and they never lost focus.”

“It’s just been an absolutely amazing experience,” said Friedman. “I would do it again. Driving here today and I’m looking out the window just imagining her and I galloping on the side of the road like, ‘Oh that’s a good spot to trot.’ I’ll be seeing that for a long time.”

A Few Setbacks

The trek across the United States is estimated to take 4 1/2 or 5 months on horseback, but horse and rider injury meant that there were delays along the way.

Valerie broke her clavicle twice, her elbow once and suffered numerous broken ribs from falls along the way. She also had a cancer scare in June when a spot showed up on x-rays of her lungs, but it was determined to be caused by an earlier fall.

“The first time [I broke my clavicle] it hurt a lot, but it didn’t seem to hurt as much when I broke it a second time getting into West Virginia. I wasn’t looking up and I ran right into a sign,” said Valerie. “The signs are lower in West Virginia and the highway 50 sign is about a foot lower. Laine had just sent me a beautiful video with all of her friends saying ‘Congratulations! One more state!’ and I put my head down to text her, ‘I love’ and before I got to ‘you’ BAM I hit the highway 50 sign. Tevo trotted off and it made such a crash on my helmet. I fell to the cement on the road and I rebroke that damn clavicle again.

“I took the day off the next day and I was back in the saddle.”

Peter Friedman and Valerie Ashker celebrated as they trotted in. Photo by Kimberly Loushin

The horses also ran into some difficulties, including stone bruises that added some time to their trip as they allowed their mounts to recover. Solar suffered a nosebleed in Colorado when they were at an altitude of 11,312 feet, and he tied up one time on their trip.

“I had to play my own vet,” she said. “There were no vets in part of Delta, Utah and Nevada. I had to call a vet and they had to walk me through what I would do when a horse tied up. It was an experience of a lifetime and it all came together.

“There were times that I worried so much about it. You never stop worrying: are your horses getting enough calories? Are they good? Are they losing weight? Are they happy? Are they hydrated?,” she said.

Friedman acted as their en-route farrier, doing his own barefoot trimming so that the horses could wear Easy Care hoof boots and so that Solar could wear glue-on shoes.

Mission Accomplished

For Valerie, the entire ride was about promoting the Thoroughbred, and in her eyes she did exactly that, as 6,000 people followed her journey on her 2nd Makes Thru Starting Gates Facebook page.

“I think the most important thing about it is awareness. I had two people get on my messenger saying in my honor they got another off-the-track Thoroughbred,” she said. “They showed me pictures, and they said it was my ride had ignited that desire to go get another one and retrain it and do a makeover, and put it in a new career.

“I had kids that their parents put the United States map on the wall of their home and every night the kids would come home from school and put the pin on for where we were. It means a lot to me that this ride influenced so many people,” she continued.

“We need to know that in every one of these cities/racetracks/barns is a world class prospect waiting to be taken off that career and be put into the ranks of another,” she said. “They’re out there, it easily can be done. Laine and I are here to prove it and Peter and I just did. I just think people are going to be more receptive when they come to options for buying horses. They’re going to remember a little trail ride that started May 9 and ended Nov. 19 of two incredible horses that were not supposed to do what they did and they did it with flying colors.”

Valerie Ashker got a big hug from her daughter, Laine, after completing her cross-country ride. Photo by Kimberly Loushin