Women are often told to be extra careful and take precautions when going out at night. In some parts of the world, even today, women are not allowed out at night. So when women struggle for freedom, we must start at the beginning by fighting for freedom of movement, which we have not had and do not now have. We must recognize that freedom of movement is a precondition for anything else. It comes before freedom of speech in importance because without it freedom of speech cannot in fact exist.
– Timmins and Area Women in Crisis Website

I’ve just found out about it. The Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race. An 800-mile endurance ride over a 13-day period starting in my hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and ending up in Independence, Missouri. It will trace the historic Santa Fe Trail that was in use from 1821-1880. My colleague mentions the horse race as an aside during a chat in the hallway, and I rush to my computer to Google “Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race.” Before you know it, I have a complete map of the horse race route in hand and an application form folded up in my purse. I am bursting at the seams when my husband picks me up from work at the end of the day in his pickup truck. I dig the folded papers out of my purse, and present them with a flourish, grinning from ear to ear.

“What’s this?” he asks.

“Read it,” I say. “It’s a horse race. I’m going to enter.”

He reads and rubs his forehead beneath the brim of his black Stetson hat at the same time, frowning slightly. “Uh, sweetheart,” he is pointing to the map, a quizzical look on his face like I’ve gone absolutely mad, “this is … 800 miles? Do you have any concept of how far that is? Even if you are on a horse?”

“Toby and I could do it.” The words come out of my mouth, and I realize that I sound about ten years old. I’m speaking about my young percheron quarter horse cross. The draft horse breed is noted for its endurance. The big black horse is no Arabian (although those hot beasts rank among his ancestors), but Percheron horses are known for carrying medieval soldiers and armor at a 7-10 mile per hour trot all day long. I’m staring out the passenger-side window beyond the adobe houses and pinon trees to where I can only see Toby and me trotting through them relentlessly. Without tiring.

“Darling, you and Toby have never gone 50 miles together in one day, let alone—“ he’s rattling the papers on the steering wheel, spreading them out as if to make his point, “… this.”

This is the same man who’s supported my starting equestrian vaulting at 40, and who went to the Santa Fe Horse Park to cheer me on as I squeezed myself into a jewel blue unitard and leapt upon the back of a cantering Iberian Warmblood horse to a fairly decent amount of applause from the stands. He’s seen other moms high-five me at equestrian vaulting events, telling me, “You go, girl!” after I perform a few remedial level gymnastics moves on horseback. I suspect their response is not because of my gymnastic prowess, but because, at my age, I’ve put myself out there and I don’t not care, at least not too very much, if anyone wonders, even out loud, what in the hell is that middle-aged woman thinking, doing a shoulder stand on the 20-meter circle? And that’s at a walk, thank you.

I’m starting to get a little irritated at the lack of enthusiasm from my usual partner in crime who can almost always be counted in as a co-conspirator for these types of big dreams, and then I suddenly realize that I probably am crazy. I’m shaking my head from side to side, saying, “What am I thinking?” I take the map from him, stare at it hard. “You’d need a whole string of highly conditioned Arabian horses for this.”

We drive out of town towards home doing the math and figuring out just exactly how many miles a horse and I would have to cover in a single day. It’s excessively far. This race is definitely for the pros. But then again, I read in the local newspaper about some fellows who are just normal guys who actually have never even been on an endurance ride (I’ve been on two training rides with a German scientist whose ridden his Arabian horse across entire deserts) and who are putting together a team for this race out of Tucumcari, NM.

To be continued ...