A test for riders and horses

Nearly two miles north of U.S. Highway 64 on a dusty dirt road on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation, Lionel Castillo ran.

"The horse got tired," the 21-year-old said as his boots clicked on the dirt road.

His horse became tired on the third leg of the 29th Annual Little Beaver Pony Express Race, an endurance horse race that spanned nearly 69 miles zigzagging across the northern part of the reservation.

The teams were competing for about $50,000 in prizes including trophies, three horse trailers and 10 saddles.

Castillo was nearly mile from the fourth exchange point, where riders switched their horses.

He estimated that his horse grew tired about two miles after the last exchange and said he'd been running since. He would trot a dozen yards then walk and trot again.

His team, Leaning Rock from Star Lake, N.M., finished the race 21st out of 25 teams that entered. Their five-hour and 18-minute completion time was nearly two hours behind the winning team, Taylor's Flyn T from Teec Nos Pos, Ariz.

"We like this race because it's more fun, more exciting," said Joshua Nez, 17, of Hard Rock, Ariz.

He was holding Buddy, a 16-year-old gelding, who's an "old man," he said.

At the fourth of five exchange points, Nez's team, Nez Racing, was in fourth place. They would eventually move up another spot by the end of the race and finish 3rd earning a horse trailer and saddles.

Nez said his family usually enters the Little Beaver Pony Express Race and the Dash for Cash held in the early summer near Red Mesa, Ariz., which is about half as long at the Little Beaver race.

When he compared the two races, he said he liked the July 16 race better because of the scenery.

"It really opens my eyes," he said.

While Nez was waiting for his teammates to arrive, Manderson Harrison of the Harrison Boyz team reach the peak of the last hill before the fourth exchange and Harrison's horse became tired and went from a trot to a walk.

Harrison dismounted and began running to the intersection where his next horse awaited him.

After all the dust and excitement had settled at the exchange point, five teams remained including Rusty Nail, a five-year-old mare. She was being held by Darren Charley, 24, of Twin Pines, N.M.

"We've been in this race a long time," he said, adding that to train their horses, they rode them on trails through the spring and summer months.

The team, he said, finished in the top 15 last year and they were hoping to finish in the top 10 or better. But with five horses yet to be claimed, he and his teammate Jason Azan, 39, of Twin Pines, knew their hopes of finishing in the top 10 were dwindling away.

Azan looked to next year's race.

"It's like falling off a horse: You get back on and show 'em who's boss. It's OK," he said.

As the last teams waited for their riders, Keith, a six-year-old gelding, laid on its side. It was panting and obviously tired from the 12.7-mile leg of the race it had completed. It would stand for a second and limped on its left front leg, then lay down again.

"He just lays down all the time," said Curt Lopez, 22, of Ojo Encino, N.M.

He added he wasn't too worried about Keith because it commonly lies down.

Keith would eat grass, chew a few bites and stop chewing though he wasn't finished eating. He was still lying down when the Navajo Times left the fourth exchange area.

According to Stuart Perea, the Pony Express Race coordinator, in the first leg of the race two horses were lost and he didn't know of any others.

Charley recalled a race on Jicarilla a few years ago when his team lost a horse due to a broken leg when the horse was galloping down a hill.

This year, in the first leg of the race, one horse died because of exhaustion and the other was euthanized after suffering a broken leg, Perea said.

But he didn't view the horse race as practicing animal cruelty.

"If a horse is loved and well fed, it is not animal cruelty," he said.

He added that the horse and the jockey race together and are a team.

"The jockeys go through just as much as the horses do," he said.

Alyssa Stash, 12, of Blanding, Utah, said she was tired as her horse.

"Some parts of my legs are tired from standing up," she said.

Her sister, Alexia Stash, 13, who finished the race for Slash Productions, was carried from her horse after the race. Her feet were hanging in the air as she wrapped her arms around her parent's neck. The corners of her mouth were white.

But in recalling the race, she remembers her horse stopping less than 20 yards from the finish line. At that moment, the team was running fourth, but was passed in that short distance and ended up in ninth place.

Alexia said all she could think in those moments was, "Dang, I got passed."

Her father, Alfred Stash, 44, said he was pleased with his daughter's ride and hopes they'll enter next year and compete again.

Christopher Francis, 35, of Teec Nos Pos, rode for Team Arizona and said merely completing the race was an accomplishment this year. He said last year he was thrown from a horse and fractured his skull in two places.

He completed the race on foot walking to the white chalk finish line. He kissed the line and looked up at the crowd of about 400 people and smile with chalk on his upper lip and chin.

"I appreciate what this is," he said about horse racing and all that's involved including his injury.

"That's what horse racing is. It's a fellowship of horsemen," he said.

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