Horsehead Ranch
Where Legends Never Die
Chief Half Moon
by Susan Landerby
1998 Ins and Outs, Ups and Downs, by Susan Lunderby. Originally published in the 1990 SMR annual.
Chief Half Moon, SMR 607 Started his 1989 season as Kim Kingsley's extra horse. He was to be used in competitive rides by Kim or other people who wanted to ride a competitive ride for fun. Certain circumstances led Chief Half Moon to become my endurance horse for the duration of the season.
Our season started at the Glacier Trails ride in Palmyra, Wisconsin, the first weekend in June. Chief and I hit it off well. We were lucky enough to top ten in our first ride. We left the last vet check 45 minutes after the rider closest to us so imagine my surprise when we caught up to not just one but a group of riders.
The weekend, in Hayward, Wisconsin, we didn't have a pit crew so lost a lot of time at the check ins and missed being in the top ten by 15 minutes.
I was concerned that Chief and I couldn't make the year end top ten standings in the Upper Midwest Endurance and Competitive Riding Association (UMECRA) and this led me to enter The Big Dry 100 mile ride in Jordan, Montana on June 24th. Big Dry was our first 100 mile ride and we were not used to the slower pace it takes to get through these long rides. After doing 50 miles in 12 hours my body was beginning to protest. It was dark and I had never ridden in the dark. At this point I would gladly have let someone else take over. I knew I had better change my attitude or I wouldn't finish, so I bit the bullet and Chief gave his all to finish the ride in the early hours of the morning. I slept until 11AM and when I woke, I thought it was just a dream, but when I moved, I knew it was for real!
on our schedule was the Southeast Minnesota ride on July 8th. We didn't make it as Kim and I had to make an emergency run to Wyoming. Our schedule was rearranged so that the ride would be in Ironweed Springs on July 22nd, giving us a month off. We eventually did this ride and ran a medium paced ride and squeezed in a sixth place.
After a weekend off, we rode the MNDRA which is a 100 mile ride in Minnesota. This trail was new and we had no idea it would be one of the hilliest rides of the year. We started at first light. Kim and Chief Yellow Fox rode with us. Though we were ten minutes late in starting, we weren't the only ones. At a split in the trail we had to decide the proper route, fortunately we chose the right one, and that this put us at the front. By the check all those that had taken the wrong trail had caught back up and passed us, so we gave it little thought until some of the people that had been lost started complaining about it. They had ridden more miles then necessary due to getting lost, and wanted compensation at the end of the ride of the extra miles they had done. This was not allowed. Though not as painful physically as rides, it was an emotional draining ride and Chief just did not feel "right", he may have strained a deep flexor tendon. He was laid off until September 16th, causing us to miss out on four rides.
At the September 16th ride, I had to decide if I was going to do the Kettle Moraine ride (50 or !00 miles) or the North Dakota 50 miles. Since Chief had qualified for the AERC National Championship series, it was a difficult decision as the Kettle Moraine was part of that series. We chose the North Dakota ride.
Chief stayed sound on the north Dakota ride so on we went to the Pillager Cup, completing the ride in sound condition, but he was not completely himself yet. However, I entered him in the Illinois Jubilee 50 miler the weekend. Our year end standings didn't look good so I had to try and make them look better. This ride was better than the last two and Chief was returning to his normal self.
The ride was Fort Fidgely and we went fairly slowly to allow the healing process to continue. He was sound and healthy after this ride, so to boost our point status we entered the White River Fall 100 miler.
Again I rode with Kim and Chief Yellow Fox, both Kim and I underestimated the difficulty of the trail and went a bit to slow in the beginning. We made up for it later on but it still took twenty-four hours to complete the course.
From Michigan we went to Illinois for the AHNDRA III 50 miler. It was here I learned that Chief and I were in contention for the Grand Championship in the UMECRA lightweight division. After completion of this ride we learned we were in the lead by 8 points.
Chief was back to 100 percent. The Point Chaser II was a very important ride and we entered the two day 100 mile ride, and came in fourth. This kept us in the running but we were tied for first as the competitor had come in first.
One ride was left for the season, so we packed up and headed to the Missouri Whetstone ride. Of all our rides, this was the most important. At the pre-ride vet check my worse nightmare came true. Chief had a huge lump on his neck, the type of lump horses get from a reaction to an injection. Neither Kim or I had given him any shots! Someone else had to have given him a shot while we were not around! I was frantic not knowing who had done this or what was injected. We rode anyway. He had a small problem with pulse rates as they didn't come down like they should have. But he got though the rides sound and ahead of our competition as our competitor for the Grand Championship got pulled for lameness as the end of the ride. A week later I was informed that the computer had made an error and Chief was not Grand Champion, but was the Reserve Grand Champion. Though upset, I realized Chief was the real champion as he was the better of the two horses, and ended the season sound.
We decided to leave the Midwest region and continue our AERC season. We had an opportunity to win our weight division and compete for a Top Five in the Jim Jones Stallion Awards program. We left for Texas.
We arrived early and had to wait a number of hours until the ride manager come to let us in. The temperature was in the 70's, which is not normally bad, but when you have horses that are used to temperatures below freezing for the past month or so, it did seem hot. The ride went well both days though with all his winter hair., Chief was pretty hot. Kim and I decided it would be better if we went to a cooler place to finish the last two weekends of the season so we headed out to Silver Springs, Nevada.
Having never been out west I had no idea of what the terrain in Nevada was like. Rock, mountains, desert and more rocks. The ride turned out to be 150 miles of rocks, and elevation changes of mountain and desert. The temperature was much better for the horses. Considering all this, Chief finished all three days shortly after dark each day, keeping our same steady pace. He stayed sound. We did meet fellow mustangers at the Nevada ride. It was a real pleasure to see other mustangs compete and do well as we didn't see this in the Midwest due to a lack of mustangs in competition.
We arrived early again and while exercising the horses we met a man named Sarge, he knew a man named Bill that was willing to sign on as out pit crew. The first day was uneventful, thee weren't as many rocks but the mountains were larger. Day two similar. By day three the weather had changed for the worse, with high winds. High winds in the desert means dust in the air. We spent two-thirds of the day riding in a dust storm. People were wearing kerchiefs and goggles to see and breathe. Unfortunately I couldn't put a kerchief over Chief's nose to keep out the dust and the poor guy was coughing so badly all day I was afraid we wouldn't make it. He had strep as a young horse which left scar tissue in his throat and lungs. As this was the last ride of the season we did go a bit faster and were able to finish well before dark. We had finished the season, finally.
Chief finished the 1989 season with total mileage of 1325. I rode him for all but 75 of those miles.-Anne Ness and Kathy Love rode those miles.
Not bad for a little bay horse that had a broken shoulder as a yearling. Once again, the Spanish Mustang proved its worth, striving to be the best, the toughest and achieving it, proving the critics and skeptics wrong as they have been proven wrong so many times before.
Mike Turnock-- 218-851-4677
e-mail : jomike@frontiernet.net
Kim Kingsley-- 701-845-2048
web design by Jo Turnock
jomike@frontiernet.net