Ft. Meade Remount under way today

Rapidcityjournal.com - Full Article

By Jason Gross, MCTT staff | Friday, July 24, 2009

STURGIS - Equestrians from nine states and Canada are slated to compete in the Ft. Meade Remount, beginning today at Fort Meade.

This is an endurance ride in which horse-rider teams are timed on 25- and 50-mile courses. Ride manager Kerry Greear said she sanctioned those rides both days, and a 15-mile fun ride is planned for today.

Greear said riders from Missouri, Maryland, Kansas, Vermont, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming will represent the United States.

Plans are for the riders to use the Centennial Trail. Riders will see historic buildings, use a tunnel to go under South Dakota Highway 34, see the Bear Butte Horse Camp and enter United States Forest Service and BLM land.

Interested individuals may come to the Alkali Creek Horse Camp area to see the horses and chat with the riders. The camp is north of Interstate 90 off Exit 34 on the other side of the chapel building.

Greear said the 50-mile ride will begin at 6 a.m. today, and trotting will start by 7:30 a.m. The rides start and end at the camp.

Riders are sanctioned through the American Endurance Riders Conference. While the event is timed, Greear said, the conference’s motto is "To finish is to win." She said the horse must be judged fit to continue.

Liz Boo from Belle Fourche, Leon Self from Oklahoma and Irina Weese from Wyoming will be on site all weekend as control veterinarians. Horses participating in the 15-mile ride will undergo the same veterinarian checks as the limited distance (25 miles) and endurance (50 miles) events.

This is the third year for the event. Ninety riders from seven states participated last year, and Greear said the Hills have never hosted an event like this.

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