I just rented a newly released movie called Hidalgo...it was very interesting and you should see it if you are a big fan of XC racing.

This movie was loosely based on a true life story of Frank T. Hopkins and one of his most famous XC races on horseback. Apparently, XC horse racing was very popular in the late 1800s. Frank won an 1800 mile XC horse race that started in Galveston, TX and ended in Vermont! It took him 30 days to finish this race...the really impressive thing was that the 2nd place finisher came in 14 days after Frank!

Later, Frank was at the world's fair in the late 1800's when he was invited to race a 3000 mile race somewhere in the desert near Saudi Arabia/Iran/Iraq. Frank was apparently the first and only foreigner at that time to race in this 3000 mile XC horse race. The movie Hidalgo is based loosely on this big race in the desert.

Frank raced Mustang horses and won over 400 races in his lifetime. He raced into his 60s (reminds me of Mike Penland who races GNCC in his 50s and consistently wins the utility stock class). Today, there are apparently some XC horse races and they are usually 50 or 100 miles long...but they do several vet checks along the way to make sure the horse is in good condition...its no longer the extreme sport it used to be back in the 1800s when riders would leave horses dead in a ditch somewhere if it got seriously injured during a long race.

To me, its like atv XC races picked up where XC horse racing left off...and we don't have to worry about the health of our atvs quite as much as the horses b/c our atvs never get tired!

Happy trails...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]