My First Ride

Roberta Jo Lieberman

It was 1978 -- the Old Dominion 50 when it was still held in Leesburg, Va. I rode a borrowed horse named "Z" with a friend, Debbie Waskow, who was riding her stallion, Mr. B. About 20 miles into the ride, we encountered a snapping turtle that dove at our horses' fetlocks. We narrowly escaped that hazard, only to meet a local stallion running free and coming right at us. Fortunately, Debbie's stallion was very well-schooled and she always carried a long whip to ward off intruders. We hustled toward a stream, and I remember flinging Z's gray body in between the stallion and Mr. B. We raced up the bank and took off, and the stallion didn't pursue us. Mr. B was slightly off at the next check and stopped for the day, and Z reluctantly went on without his buddy...Got done in time to see Larry Kanavy winning the 100 on the Quarter Horse Charge Cindy and Valerie and Winkie Mackay-Smith racing in for second.

In those early days, our tack broke a lot. The following year, on the Firecracker 50 in Punxatawney, PA, I was riding my first endurance horse, Rushcreek Ingrid, in a McLellan saddle . About halfway through, a stirrup leather broke. In 1981, on our way to a third place finish on the Vermont 100, one of the stirrup bars on my English saddle collapsed.

It's interesting to look back at the old photos and see how little gear most folks carried back then -- and somehow we made it around!

Get us around a campfire and we'll reminisce all night long...;)

Bobbie

Copyright 2000 Roberta Jo Lieberman

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