My motivation to ride went out the window for a while. 2018 was the last time I went to a barrel race. Back then, barrel racing was my motivation to ride, that is until it wasn’t. Thankfully, I found out about Warhorse Endurance, a virtual horseback riding challenge open to all riders of every discipline.
WHY I LOST MY MOTIVATION TO RIDE
If you’ve been a long time follower of the blog, then you know there are two things I love to do…Barrel Race and Trail Ride. For a couple years straight, Rumor and I competed in every barrel race in our NBHA district. My motivation to ride back then and a goal I set for us was to qualify for Worlds. We accomplished that goal and qualified both years that we competed. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take off work either year, so we never actually made it to Worlds.
Due to all the competing we did, Rumor developed ulcers and was struggling to get over them. At one point, she got so sick the vet was out at 11pm treating her for stomach pain. There was a couple of days she wouldn’t eat or drink much. She also would lay down A LOT. I was truly worried to death about her. Thankfully, we treated her for Ulcers for a little over a month and since then she has been much better with no signs of ulcers returning. However, my motivation to ride was gone at this point. I was too scared the ulcers would return, so I let her be a pasture pony.
Aside from that horrible experience, I also dealt with some major things happening in my life at that time…my cousin passing away from cancer, my marriage on the rocks, family drama, etc. All the stress I was dealing with left me exhausted and with no motivation to do anything but get through the motions of each day.
HOW I GOT MOTIVATED TO RIDE
Last year, I had been slowly getting back into riding and had started to trailer off to trail ride some. That’s when my friend Leesa told me about Warhorse Endurance. She was using it to be motivated to ride and spend more time with her horse. So we decided one day, to sign up for one of the challenges and ride it together. We’d use it to not only be motivated to ride at home but also keep riding together.
In December of 2020, I signed up for the 100 mile Journey Challenge. I wish I could remember how long it took me to complete it but I think it was a little over 4 months. Needless to say though, I did complete it and since signing up for it, I have completed 3 more 100 mile challenges and am working on two new ones. One of which is a 1900 mile challenge called the Pony Express and I’m only 716 miles in. My goal is to complete it by the end of 2022 which means I need to ride quite a bit. I’m ready though, bring it on!
What I love about the challenges is that each one has prizes for participants. It’s not a true “race” in the sense that you have to place to get a prize, with these challenges everyone gets a prize. The prize for all challenges is a medal (although for some you get a buckle instead of a medal), a pin, a patch and sometimes a sticker.
Check out these medals I’ve got so far:
I don’t know about you but I love when I get things in the mail that aren’t bills, so when I see the packages for the medals in the mailbox, it feels like Christmas morning and I can’t wait to open it!
Aside from the awesome medals, a portion of your entry fee goes to a charity like Last Chance Corral, Operation Underground Railroad, Missing Murdered Indigenous Women, etc. So not only do you get to find motivation to ride for yourself but you also can do it knowing you’re helping out others in the process.
Another thing I love is the community of great ladies (and men but mostly ladies) that you get to talk to and interact with through the Warhorse Endurance Facebook group. Right now there are 3.4k members in the group from all over the world. You get to see so many different people, horses and trails from all over. Everyone is there to encourage everyone which makes it such a great community of people.
WHAT MOTIVATED OTHERS TO DO THE CHALLENGES
Now that you know we have our own community of riders, let me share with you why they signed up for these challenges.
As you can see, many different reasons to sign up and do this! I’m so grateful to my friend Leesa for sharing this with me which is why I’m now sharing it with you. If you love riding as much as I do but haven’t been doing as much of it as you want, maybe these challenges can motivate you too!
With that said, if you’re ready for some more saddle time, you can sign up at —> WarhorseEndurance.com. There are currently 6 open challenges to choose from!
**I was not asked to nor paid to promote this event. I choose to share this event and information about it because I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it and found my motivation to ride again because of it. Therefore, I want to share it with other riders who might need an extra push to get back into riding.
SO TELL ME…
Have you ever done a virtual horseback riding challenge before?
1 Comment
Dee Dee Wheless
November 7, 2022 at 8:37 pmHi, my name is Dee Dee. I have ridden since the age of 4 but as we all go through life sometimes we tend to loose ourselves because of reasons we don’t have control over, whether it’s due to raising a family, work, family sickness, etc. I myself have experienced this. Over the last couple of years I started riding again with friends on their horses. Once you have loving a horse in your system it never leaves. I have since purchased my forever horse and still overcoming challenges with myself and learning my horse. I refuse to give up my passion and I have all intentions to hold myself accountable to continue my journey for the love of horses.