2009

After much discussion on the status of the trails at Shelby Farms, a mutual decision has been made by the Shelby Farms Equestrian Alliance BOD (ride sponsor) and the new management team for Shelby Farms Park to cancel the 2009 City Slickers Endurance Ride. There are sections of the multi-use trails in the Park that cannot sustain or are not safe enough for multiple horse use at this time. The new Park management team does not feel that they can do re-routes, build some new bridges, low water crossings, etc., in the time needed for the ride to be held March 21, 2009.
The Park plan at this time is to bring in a "multi-use" trail designer to meet with all the user groups, and take this coming year to bring the multi-use trails in the Park to a sustainable level.
I urge all of you local riders to join the Park's trail crew in making a stronger horse presence in the Park. We are looking towards a 2 day ride in 2010 with new trails.
Thank you for your past participation, hope to see you in 2010.
Terry Silver
RM, City Slickers
Cell 901-268-1127

2008

by Terry Silver

The 13th Annual City Slickers Endurance Ride is one for the books. It was quite a test of endurance as 84 endurance riders rode 25 and 50-mile courses, and 6 fun riders tested their stamina. The weather turned unbelievably bad about 4:30 am on Saturday morning, cleared for awhile and then mid-morning came again with strong sideways rain, hail and lightening, there was more water on the trails than any local riders had ever seen.

Thankfully, we had an incredible group of volunteers that stuck it out through the bad weather to help all the horses and riders through, there were very few pulls due to this group of volunteers.

Ride management thanks go out to Chris Frame for keeping track of the various storms that passed overhead and around with his hand held radar unit; Belinda Ekmark and Rudy Watkins for helping keep the away vet check area functioning, Teresa Frame for mentoring 6 brand new riders though the 25 mile and Shef Worboys, Ellen Hengesteg and Sara Smith to name a few who kept the 2nd and final vet check areas working. We also were blessed again this year to have the Delta Ham Radio Club on site with us to monitor all the riders and the weather, the Memphis Police Traffic Unit to help with road crossings, SFEA members Rick Richardsen who had his hands full with making sure all the trails were safe for the horses and riders, Dr. Joe Opie for handling the very busy Overlook road crossing area, and Nathan Lubin and Wes Mueller for being every where needed. Without this core group of volunteers this would be an impossible task, there were a number of other volunteers from around the area that came to help; we are very grateful for your help.

Riders came from many surrounding states, TN, MS, AR, TX, OK, MO, IN, KY, AL, and GA. There were 50 starting riders in the 25 mile, of which 6 were junior riders and 23 were first time endurance riders, Tammy Griffith of MS was first with a winning time of 2:47; there were 34 starting riders in the 50 mile, of which 2 were junior riders and 1 was a first time endurance rider, Roger Barrett of TN was first with a winning time of 5:26.


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Last Updated on 11/22/2008