When Karen Kroon left Huntsville, Utah, to drive to Oreana, Idaho, for the Arabian Nights CEI*** 100-mile endurance ride, she had no idea she would be driving home with a new Sundowner trailer, especially considering that this was Rokket’s first 100-mile ride.

“I’ve ridden four 50-mile rides this summer on him,” she said. “We were doing so well, everyone told me to try the 100.”

Kroon positioned Rokket well forward at the start, and they maintained a strong pace, with Rokket posting good recoveries throughout the ride. By the fifth and next-to-last loop, Kroon was riding neck-and-neck with Susan White Hedgecock aboard AA Montego. The two pulsed down quickly, and after a 40-minute hold, they headed out almost simultaneously for the last 14 miles.

On this loop, Kroon managed to edge ahead, finishing first in a course record time of 7:57. Hedgecock arrived one minute later. Two-time World Champion Valerie Kanavy, riding Shahdon, took third (8:07).

Next year’s World Endurance Championship will be held in January in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where the terrain is similar to the high desert of the Owyhee Plains. The Arabian Nights ride was the final selection ride for the U.S. team that will compete in Dubai, and all 10 team members rode, many choosing for a conservative finish rather than vying for first place. This was a ride of strategy, as the competitors were mostly seasoned campaigners, and the prizes were rich.

Art Priesz, member of the USEF Endurance Committee and chef d’equipe for the World Championship squad, said, “In order to select the best horse and rider teams [for] the next World Championship, we have to observe their ability to perform on a fast desert course. The Owyhee desert course is a perfect venue for us.”

The ride trail, bordered by the Owyhee Mountain range, went through Bureau of Land Management land, over historic, private ranch trails, and trekked on 20 miles of the original Oregon Trail. This area bordering the Snake River harbors the dramatic remnants of ancient volcanic eruptions and giant boulders shaped and deposited by floodwaters. Late evening riders took advantage of the full Idaho moon to light their trail.

The horses took the trail under controlled conditions at 6:15 a.m. by the light of the galaxy of stars visible in the clear desert air. The first of six loops headed out from the ranch through the pungent sage prairie.

Bob Steller, riding Majestic Star+, took the lead with a steady trot. After the first 20 miles, Kroon, Kanavy, Tracy Webb, looking strong on TOF Corona, and John Crandell on Brown R Jazzman caught up with him. U.S. team members Candy Barbo riding Regal Task and Becky Harris on GA Tyfa Mynte rode strong but conservative rides, consistently pulsing down and departing within minutes of each other.

By the third loop, it was a race of attrition, as some riders dropped back or were eliminated. Kroon and Hedgecock kept moving up in the standings, riding at a steady pace, always aware of the other riders, and vying for the front positions with Kanavy and Webb.

Kroon, who has more than 12,000 recorded AERC miles, has logged most of her competition miles in some of the harder landscapes of the west. And her completion record is peppered with Best Condition awards, on a variety of horses. The Arabian Nights ride was no exception, as Rokket earned the Best Condition award, and Kroon carried home a new Reactor Pannel saddle in her new trailer.

Kroon arrived in Oreana with no crew or help, and she did not have a ride plan. “I just went out to see what he’d do,” she said.

Second-placed Hedgecock, a cancer survivor, was in a race to get well just a few years ago. “Five years ago I could hardly walk,” she said. “After chemotherapy, I lost all of my hair.”

A combination of modern and ancient medicine took her into remission. “The horses saved me,” she said. As her health returned, she started competitive riding with a vengeance.

“I had planned to do the course in 9 1/2 hours,” said Hedgecock, “but the course was so nice, and Montego was handling it so well. I had a crew that was awesome, and we took advantage of all of the opportunities.”

Hedgecock, from Park City, Utah, teaches skiing in the winter and rides after the snow melts.

This ride through the dramatic landscape of the Owyhee high desert area attracted riders from Argentina, Belgium, Canada and the United Arab Emirates. Belgium’s Leonard Liesens, riding Great Santini, was the first off-continent rider to finish, in 10th. Argentinean rider Miguel Pavlovsky came in 12th aboard Jaziret Bey Musc.

In another ride first, Madiya Al Maktoum completed her first 100-mile ride in her first U.S. start, and she is the first female UAE rider to do so. The 24-year-old niece of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, defense minister and Crown Prince of Dubai, is gaining experience in horse management as well as riding skills while studying with long-time horse trainer, Grace Ramsey.

“I live for horses,” said Madiya. After she returns to Dubai in the fall, she hopes to start the first woman’s endurance team. “They need someone to do it first,” she said.

John and Steph Teeter managed the ride, headquartered at their ranch. The Emirates International Endurance Village (EIEV) sponsored the ride, including providing a 1995 Sundowner trailer for the winner.

Teeter said some riders were concerned about the awards tempting riders to overexert their horses. “At this level, the riders know the risks of over-extending their horses, and the top riders rode smart,” she said. “No problems. No treatments; there were not even any metabolic pulls! Only lameness pulls.”

Fifty-five riders started the ride, and 36 riders finished for a 65 percent completion rate, while 70 percent of the team riders completed the course.