Thanks Ironbender,
I was here in Utah working with horses in 2006 when an employer paid me for services with an Arab mare (Allektra '99) with good papers. She was too broncy and her head wasn't pretty enough for her owners, so I took her (was younger then). I tried to ride her until she was tired enough to settle down and found that she could usually outlast me. I got an idea that her progeny might make endurance horses. I was also working at an Outward Bound-type outfit where one of the teachers owned a Jockey Club stud (Armstrong '96). We did a mating and my current gelding Dale resulted, but he was foaled in IL and spent time there and in 4 other states (I had foolishly taken a real job). That mare went down the road and put the next owner in the hospital. I got back here permanently in 2017 and got busy starting a business. I recently came to my senses and realized that if I didn't enter him in a race now, I never would.
We honestly did a half dozen rides in preparation (we're at 7000 feet). It's rocky here, and steep, so we usually go pretty slowly. I would probably call it 'interval training,' for lack of a better term. Walk up the really steep stuff, trot/lope when the trail's good and walk over the rocks. Moab is 2000 feet lower and the trails were a lot better. We went out with the leaders (there was a Tevis and Bighorn vet in our LD) and I pulled him back about halfway through the first 15 miles. I didn't want to be the guy they warn about in the AERC literature. Then I proceeded to get off track, etc.
Got away with a horned saddle, boots and jeans, and no heart rate monitor or electrolyte supplements. Might have to take it up a notch and get serious if we want to do a real ride this fall.
