First ride of the 2025 season, and several other firsts, in the books! All I can say is WOW, and if you haven’t been to Picket Post, add it to your list for next year. The XP rides never disappoint; between the stunning scenery, relaxed camp atmosphere, and same traveling group of riders that attend, it feels like a big family going for an epic ride together every few weeks!
This was the first time I’d ridden in Arizona, and anyone within a five-mile radius could likely hear shouts of “this is so beautiful” as we rode along! I’d never ridden next to a “real” cactus and got my
wish about ten thousand times over. The beautifully harsh landscape was littered with these resilient, spiky warriors pushing through the rock and sand in droves.
This was also the first time I’ve ridden my own horse in an endurance ride! Every single race has been on someone else’s horse until now, with Griffin. I added Griffins Flight, a 15-year old Arabian gelding, to my herd not even a month before this race. He’d had a solid season and a half of impressive 50’s, but some down time before coming to me. Knowing he wasn’t in peak shape, the plan was to take it day by day and do LDs, just to see what we had and to enjoy the scenery. To say I was impressed with Griffin is an understatement! Our partnership is new, it was a long trip, and foreign terrain for him (he is from the Pacific Northwest). He quickly learned to navigate the rocky Arizona trails, and seemed to be enjoying the adventure as much as me.
Picket Post was a bucket list ride for me and my BFF, Rachel Shackelford. We decided this would be our New Year’s ride and a perfect way to kick off 2025. Our friend Annamarie came along for the journey, and our trio departed from Northern CA around 9pm on Wednesday, arriving in Arizona on Thursday a whopping 16 hours later! Shout out to Rachel who drove the ENTIRE way down!
Picket Post takes place just outside of Superior, AZ, a small mining town about an hour east of Phoenix that would be extremely easy to dismiss. I was raised in a small town reminiscent of this in Northern CA, and have learned to love the history, old buildings, wall art, and die-hard locals of these places.
Thursday was spent settling the horses and exploring Superior! Rachel, Anna, and I had delicious BBQ at the Silver King Smokehouse and Saloon, and then stopped to chat with the locals who were admiring Rachel’s truck. They were kind, welcoming, gave us the history of the area, and insisted that we had to visit the “best boutique in town” before leaving. One of the men then admitted that the boutique belongs to his wife, and to mention that he sent us when we went! We parted ways and walked the main street of Superior as the sun was setting, then headed back to camp to get some much-needed sleep.
Friday was our pre-ride, tack fitting, and hang around camp day. Both Rachel and I have been riding our whole lives, while Anna has been on a horse maybe ten times EVER! She is an avid and accomplished snowmobiler, wake-surfer, skier, mountain biker, and many more extreme sports that I’m forgetting to list. She’s fearless, balanced, athletic, and game enough to say yes to riding a horse 25 miles through the desert, so she fits right into the endurance community! We spent the day making sure tack fit was perfect and she felt comfortable. I was thrilled to notice that Griffin is an excellent traveler, and seemed right at home in ride camp.
Saturday ride morning dawned clear, cool, and in a dazzling display of pink and orange painting the desert rock around us. Rachel and I never set out to win rides. We usually start in the mid-to-back of the pack, see how the day goes, keep a consistent pace, and stop to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. This ride started the same, with the three of us calmly walking out of ride camp. Rachel was on her main boy Jazz, Anna was on the spotted wonder Sonora, and I was on Griffin for our maiden voyage. Leaving camp, we wound our way almost immediately into one of the most beautiful places I’ve ridden, Arnett Canyon. The trail cuts through the bottom of towering red and white rock walls, dotted with tall cactus and a menagerie of desert scrub and flora. Sitting on a fresh horse, watching the morning sun paint the canyon from soft pastels to vibrant color with each passing minute took my breath away.
About three miles in, Anna (who was in the back), asked when we were walking next as she felt the saddle might need some adjusting. Rachel and I, not understanding the severity, said we’d be slowing in a few miles. Moments later as the trail widened slightly from single track, Sonora came shooting past me with the saddle completely sideways on the right side of her body, Anna hanging doggedly on! Though what happened next likely only took about five seconds, it felt like I was watching in slow motion as Sonora narrowly missed slamming into Griffin, but did begin sideswiping Jazz. This dislodged Anna, who hit the ground hard and was drug for a moment by the reins before coming to a stop…directly in front of Jazz. Rachel tried desperately to turn Jazz so he wouldn’t go right over the top of Anna on the ground, but his forward momentum was too great. He ended up spinning so his back and hind end was towards Anna, and then going completely over and down on top of both Anna and Rachel. Jazz scrambled to his feet, and both him and Sonora booked it into the mountainous desert, disappearing from sight. Three feet in front of me on the ground lie both of my friends, and my stomach dropped.
Rachel popped up and we circled Anna like hawks to check that everything was working. I quickly asked them both if they were okay or if I needed to ride for help; they were both fine enough that I felt comfortable going after the horses. Luckily, I caught glimpses of Sonora as her and Jazz trekked down a different canyon, away from where the ride trail led. Trying to approach calmly and slowly to not spook them further, Griffin (who was agitated but keeping it together, amazingly) and I kept the horses in our sights and tried to lure them to us. Jazz and Sonora begin making their way up a steep, rocky hillside, and Jazz had his reins wrapped around one leg. They were in a position that made it impossible for me to retrieve them on horseback, and nowhere good to tie Griffin where I wouldn’t risk also losing him.
I kept the panic at bay, knowing that if they did crest the hill they were climbing and dropped over the other side out of sight, we might lose them. I loudly but calmly kept calling to them, hoping Rachel might be on her way and hear me. When I saw both her and Anna walking towards me the relief was indescribable for many reasons. Rachel was able to climb the hillside and bring both horses down. Remarkably, neither horse even had a scratch! You hear the horror stories of endurance horses being lost at rides and never think it’ll happen to you. Both Rachel and I are investing in GPS beacons to keep in our saddlebags after this experience.
We all took a moment to regroup. Both Anna and Rachel were banged up but nothing too serious. As the weekend went on both would end up with some pretty impressive bruising and swelling, and Anna with a gashed elbow, but damn if they both didn’t tough it out and finish the ride! Rachel insisted I go ahead without them, and that they were going to walk for a while. She knew it was my first ride with Griffin and wanted to me get a good experience with him. Obviously, the ride always comes second to rider safety. I would stop my ride for anyone needing help, no questions asked. I felt really conflicted about riding on without them, but with both of their assurances and seeing them walking with no major injuries, I finally did turn and let Griffin loose on the trail.
The rest of the day was a dream! I was so thoroughly impressed with Griffin. I don’t know many horses that could witness a crash like that mere feet from them, go hunt the loose horses down, then be asked to leave them and go down the trail alone, and keep their head on straight. He was a SAINT, showcasing his remarkable enthusiasm, maturity, and work ethic. This day really began to bond us, and we rode the rest of the miles alone to an 8th place finish.
I wasn’t surprised at all to see Rachel and Anna finish not far behind us! Anna was even game to ride the second day and likely would have tried had Rachel and I not banned her, assuring her it would feel like she’d been hit by a train on Sunday. Absolutely cannot discount Anna’s toughness, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing her again at a ride!
We went for ice cream in town Saturday afternoon to celebrate everyone being alive and surviving the ride. Felicia’s Ice Cream Shop on Main Street has the BIGGEST scoops ever, with a cute small-town dessert shop vibe. From there we walked up to Random Boutique – yes, the one recommended by the locals! If you find yourself in Superior, stop to walk Main Street and visit this boutique. I found a painting that I couldn’t leave without (pictured below on the right), and everywhere you look in the store is something unique. Walking back to the truck with our purchases in hand, the same man who recommended the boutique drove by and saw we’d taken his suggestion, shouting to us happily from his truck. We yelled back to him that it really is the best boutique ever, and suddenly it felt like we were part of Superior, my favorite feeling when traveling and getting to know a place.
As I’ve begun going to more XP (aka, Duck rides – if you know, you know), I’ve learned that these rides come from a much more old-school genre of thinking about endurance. You have to navigate trail, truly take care of your horse, you RIDE not RACE, and most importantly of all, if the Duck says a section of trail is gnarly, LISTEN, because the Duck will take you right over the edge of a cliff and not even call that difficult. When he tells you something is rough, he isn’t bluffing. At the meeting Saturday night, we were warned that the start of next morning’s ride would be about “four miles of hell”. Rachel and I shot each other a wide-eyed look, wondering what we’d signed up for!
Sunday morning began in vivid desert sunrise colors, and MUCH colder than the previous day. Rachel and I again set off at a walk on Jazz and Griffin, in dead last, cursing the sharp cold permeating our layers as we meandered through shadowed canyons, apprehensively waiting for the four miles of hell to start. It was impossible to miss! We turned right up a steep, extremely rocky road, with the Duck standing at the turn to ensure everyone went the right way, and I swear he had a twinkle in his eye watching all of us process what was next!
I think Rachel and I walked nearly half of the LD on Sunday, and we definitely walked the entirety of the four miles of rocky, pitted road until hitting the Arizona Trail. The Arizona Trail is a non-motorized path from Mexico to Utah, stretching 800 miles across Arizona to connect deserts, mountains, canyons, and forests in a diverse ecological array. Getting to ride a section of it was incredible! We traversed thin single track, dodging cactus on the side of steep slopes and took in wide-ranging desert mountain views from the backs of our sure-footed, matching bay Arabians.
My appreciation and respect for Griffin grew again on Sunday. I’d been wary of riding him a second day, mostly because our partnership is so new and he’d not been in a full conditioning schedule. He proved to be a tenacious boy, who picked his way through the rocks as deftly the second day as the first. I promised him a week off filled with pampering when we got home.
Rachel and I walked across the finish line at ride camp how we normally do, laughing and already beginning to strip tack off the horses to get them cared for. We learned that we finished 5th and 6th and wrapped each other in shocked hugs; what a cherry on top of two incredible days of riding.
We split the long drive home and our amazing ponies got the promised week of rest and pampering. I am still happily lost in memories of how it felt to cruise through the bottom of Arnett Canyon, the majesty of being dwarfed by the towering cactus, the nimble feet of Griffin gamely picking through the tough terrain, that feeling of home away from home when you pull into an XP ride camp, and the way nothing tastes as good at a ride as Annie’s sandwiches!
I am eagerly awaiting the next XP ride, and if you get anything from reading my ramblings I hope it’s this; the true spirit of endurance embodies adventure. It’s about setting out on a difficult task with your four-legged partner to see if you can accomplish hard things together, overcoming challenges both seen and unforeseen. It’s about navigating, reading trail, knowing when to pick the path or let your horse choose. It’s about preserving your horse rather than racing for a placing. Yes, I love to go fast with the best of them when I can, but more than that, I want to see things I’ve never seen, experience places that most don’t get to go, and create unparalleled memories that will sustain me for a lifetime. If that’s what endurance also means to you, the next XP ride is Eastern Mojave, and I hope to see you there!
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