Two Poems: Tevis Cup Horse Race

These two poems, from my book When the Horses Come and Go, are in honor of the Tevis 100-Mile Endurance Ride through rough terrain across the Sierra Nevada.

Tevis Riders

Hooves echo through ghostly morning air.

Arabians, amped and pawing forward,

Haul their riders to the first vet check

Then climb the zigzag trail over High Camp.

Seven miles after scaling Cougar Rock,

The horses are ready for 93 more

All the way from Truckee to Auburn

Through Desolation Wilderness.

They bunch into clots of mustangs and mules,

Quarters and appaloosas.

Easy boots and canteens bounce

On bungees from well-padded saddles.

Some horses fling tails tied

With red “back off” ribbons.

Riders brave alpine summer frost

With layers of clothes to peel off

As the day pulls them

Closer toward the Central Valley.

A hundred miles to ride in one hundred degrees.

If they finish the race, they get a buckle

If they finish.

APB

He clamored into the Chamber office

Wanting to spread the word

His little Arab tossed him on the Tevis

Now she’s lost up there.

The other ladies all looked at him

As if he were from outer space

But I imagined that confused little horse

Burdened with tack and gear

Without grass and water

In that craggy granite place.

A week passed and we heard

The horse was found and safe

Her saddle slipped around her belly

Otherwise she had survived unscathed.

He came in to tell us ‘thanks’

Though we hadn’t done a thing.

Our lives rally around mailings and mixers

Boosting business and a tourist trade

Until a little Arab mare in trouble

Broke our rhythm for one day.