Ruhenstroth resident Karen Chaton and her horse Granite Chief very quietly brought home a national championship at the close of the year.

The duo won the American Endurance Ride Conference total mileage title much in the same way they'd competed throughout the last several years - with steady and composed dedication week in and week out.

Granite Chief accumulated 2,135 miles over the course of 2004, completing all 41 rides that he was entered in. Rides in the AERC must be at least 50 miles in length.

"You have to know not to do too much," Chaton said. "He (Granite Chief) really pulled it off. It wasn't until October until we realized how close we were in the national standings."

Chaton, 39, had been near the top nationally before, and had been one of the top riders in the Western region for several years. After seeing how close she was in October, she and Granite Chief set out nearly every weekend to try to stay in the race.

"All of the sudden, I noticed that we were winning by nearly 80 miles and there wasn't much time left for anyone to catch us," she said. "It was very exciting."

Thousands of endurance riders compete in the AERC in both the United States and in Canada.

Weekend rides can often have up to 300 entries or more.

"It's sort of one of those things you get addicted to," Chaton said. "You get to travel around the country and see a lot of nice trails, meet people and compete against them."

Chaton said she has been competing since 1994. The sport has taken her all over Southern Nevada, Oregon, California, Utah and Arizona.

Locally, she's competed in rides at Silver Springs and Fort Churchill.

One ride even took her to the Grand Canyon.

"They all vary in distance," Chaton said. "There are one-day hundred-mile rides, some five-day rides. They take you all over the place."

Chaton said the horse must pass a vet check every just to be determined fit to continue.

"You have to pass before you go out and you have to pass on your way back in," Chaton said. "The safety horse is the most important thing.

"It was a luck year this year. The horse closest to us in the standings started falling apart toward the end of the year and couldn't continue. Granite Chief had a great year. He stayed healthy and kept plugging along."

Granite Chief ended up winning by 80 miles, with the closest horse posting 2,055. The third-place finisher had 1,785 miles.

Chaton said that she often takes her horses out into the Pine Nuts to practice for upcoming rides.

"It can vary," she said. "It depends on the weather. That's kind of tough around here. It helps to have a lot of instinct in this sport. To know when the horse is ready to stop, and when it's ready for more."

She's been riding Granite Chief for about four years.

"He's a great horse," she said. "He takes on a lot every week and he is such a nice horse."

Chaton had a pony when she was a kid and wanted to get back into riding horses once she was an adult.

On the weekend of a ride, she and her husband, Dave, load up their two dogs and hook up the trailer. Dave crews for Karen, and shoes the horses.

"It is a great sport," Chaton said. "As long as I can get on a horse, I'll keep doing it. It's a nice, healthy workout. It keeps you in shape and takes a lot of conditioning."

For more information on endurance riding, look on the Web at www.aerc.org.



- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.