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The sport of ride and tie is a combination of endurance riding and trail running. Competitors enter as a team, which consists of two people and one horse. The humans take turns riding and running, switching roles back and forth as best suits their particular physical strengths. Each has to cover at least some of the course on foot, and what is not run, is ridden.
Although most races are 25 miles in length and can easily be combined with local endurance rides, the longest are 100 miles long. The length of the world championship route depends on the terrain.
Type of horse
Any breed of horse is welcome. Historically there have been Arabians, Thoroughbreds, Mustangs, Quarter Horses, Icelandics, Paints, Drafts, Ponies and even a few mules. A Draft is not ideal, though, as they are harder to mount afield and tend to get over-heated. As in the sport of endurance, the Arabian and part-Arabian horses excel.
The conditioning for ride and tie is very similar to the conditioning for endurance. In fact, many people who compete in both, use endurance events to condition their ride and tie horses.
The first rider goes ahead at a fast pace, then stops and ties the horse to a tree, where it stands and waits until the second rider reaches it on foot, mounts and races on, passes the first rider, who is now running, and again ties the horse some distance ahead to proceed on foot. The horse therefore has to be able to withstand this stop-and-start regime.
Other than conditioning, the only preparation that is needed for the horse, is exposure to being tied while other horses pass on course.
Ride and tie is an easy sport to get started in if you are not a runner, but are capable to add some running to your athletic routine.
Ride and tie events
Currently, to our knowledge, the sport is active in the USA, Canada and Germany. At some point in the past, it was also performed in Australia, Austria, and the UK. It is very simple to add a ride and tie to an already scheduled endurance event.
The world championship is bigger in name than in fact. There are no qualifiers for the championship event and it is open to all.
As an open event, any number of South African teams would be welcome to come and join us for the 38th Annual 2008 Ride & Tie World Championship. Free entry for an interested team to represent their country, will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to a pair who can establish their riding skills. No running talent is required.
Start the process by sending an e-mail request to international@rideandtie.org. The reason for riding standards is that it is assumed that the team will want to lease a horse locally. This will not be possible if the team cannot demonstrate their ability to care for a horse under racing conditions.
World Championships 2008
The 38th Annual Ride & Tie World Championship race will take place in Taylorsville California on 21 June 2008. This is a particularly rugged 35-mile course in a remote part of northern California, approximately four-and-a-half hours’ drive north-east of San Francisco.
The course starts just above 3 000 feet elevation. It has four precipitous climbs of over 5 500 feet, with the tallest at about midway at approximately 6 500 feet.
Both previous years this course was used for the world championship event, the fastest finish time was just over four hours. Runners who are not at world class level can expect to take six to eight hours to complete this course.
Camp will open one week before the event on 14 June, allowing teams to pre-ride the course, plan their race-day strategy, and for non-local teams, to familiarise themselves with their leased horses.
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