WEG Endurance Team Aiming for Gold

The U.S. squad is made up of 6 riders with 9 alternates. The team of 4 riders will be picked on site in Spain, and two riders will ride as individuals. The riders all are life-long equestrians with from 12 - 30 years in endurance competitions. The youngest horse is 9 and the oldest is 13, with from 2 - 5 years of endurance experience and over 45 100-mile rides between them.

Beverly Gray of Park City, Utah, has over 14,000 AERC miles. Gray was a marathon runner who turned into a champion Ride & Tie competitor. She has been riding in endurance events since 1985 and campaigned the 1996 Hall of Fame Horse, AA Omner to over 9,000 AERC championship miles. When she found Paladin (Royale Bay x Shani Tahjurose) with the same sire line as Omner, she was certain he would have the same winning attitude. Paladin is 10 years old and his record includes 6 100-mile rides, and strong placings in two demonstration rides-5th in the Washoe ride in Nevada and 4th at the Mt. Adams, Washington ride.

Valerie Kanavy, from Fort Valley, Virginia, has been competing in endurance since 1972 and has over 13,000 recorded AERC miles. She is a solid international competitor, having medaled in three World Endurance Championships. In 1994 at The Hague, she won the individual gold medal and Best Conditioned on Pieraz, in 1996 in Kansas she earned an individual silver medal on TK Fire N Gold, and in 1998 she won the individual gold medal in Dubai on High Winds Jedi. Kanavy's mount for the WEG will be 15.1h, 10-year old Shahdon (TYX X x Shaheda Saba). He has the least 100-mile experience of any of the squad horses, but has a racing background and has taken well to the sport. He finished his demonstration ride at Fort Howes in third position with a ride time of 9 hours and 28 minutes. Kanavy feels that he will be a solid team horse.

Cia Reis from Pennsdale, Pennsylvania, has ridden since she was a child. She has a solid background in Arabian showing and dressage, and started endurance riding 10 years ago. She and her husband compete regularly and her mount for the WEG, Catch a Wave (So-Neat x Cal-Bint Surf), was originally purchased for her husband. When she started riding Wave, she found she was a good match for the 14.3h 13-year-old gelding. The pair has successfully completed 7 100-mile rides, finishing second at the Biltmore ride in 2001. In 2002, Reis finished 2nd at her Fort Howes demonstration ride in a ride time of 9 hours and 18 minutes.

Heather Bergantz Reynolds, the youngest of the squad at 25, has over 8500 AERC ride miles. She started distance riding when she was 11, having answered an ad from Maryben Stover to feed horses in exchange for riding lessons. Some of her early ride partners were Becky Hart (3 X World Champion 19,195/miles), Trilby Peterson (54,300/miles), and Bob (14,000/miles) & Julie Suhr (27,000/ miles).

The serendipity that brought together the blossoming endurance rider and her mount, Crystals Charm (Crystal Wind x Autumn Splendor), is another story. Skip Lightfoot purchased Red off a slaughterhouse truck in 1998. Bergantz, who rode for Skip, knew after the first race together that she had a special horse. He had the drive, the athletic ability, great recoveries, and the will to go. In 1999 he placed 7th and got the Haggin Cup Best Conditioned award at the Tevis. In 2001, the duo swept many of the major rides, finishing back-to-back 100-mile wins and getting the Best Condition awards at Washoe Valley (5/2001) and Swanton Pacific (7/2001), before winning the Pan Am Championship in August. Their record in 2002 includes an 11th place at the President's Cup race in Dubai in February and the win at Fort Howes, Montana, in June in a ride time of 8 hours and 57 minutes.

Reynolds, who was married this spring, said Red remains as easy to ride as he did that first year. "He's a solid horse; he goes wherever you put him".

Steve Rojek, from South Woodstock, Vermont, the only male on the U.S. squad, is also an experienced competitor, gathering over 8500 AERC ride miles since 1986, while challenging almost every major ride in the United States. Smokerise Finally (Atilanch x Endura) is Rojek's horse for the WEG. The youngest horse on the squad, the 9-year old already has 11 100-mile rides to his race credit, finishing all of them in the top ten. He completed 2 100-mile back-to-back rides in June finishing 8th at Mt. Adams in Washington, then completing the Fort Howes ride one week later in 9th place. In March of 2002 he finished 39th out of 109 starters at the 130-km Dubai World Cup ride in the United Arab Emirates.