The Tevis Buckle, commissioned by Will Tevis, was designed by Tiffany’s of New York. The first of these buckles were awarded, in 1959, in 1956-58 buckles were awarded but not the ones we have today. According to research, 61.8% of horses owners are women. Since 1959 to 2016, 74.6% of the total Tevis buckle earners are also women. Thank your Dad or husband for their devotion to a peaceful living.
Okay, let’s talk about Group #1, the largest group of Tevis people.
These riders are “the number 1’s,” whom I’ve divided into the subgroups of 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1f:
1a – These people have heard or read of the characteristics of this challenge. They might not have a horse, but they have a longstanding admiration and/or want for one. They are also particularly supportive of endurance and do want a Tevis buckle. Now, they might have gone on endurance rides as a crew or related to a Tevis rider with a higher rating, but they haven’t taken the steps to enter the Tevis. Either that, or they do want to enter the Tevis, but they don’t quite know if they could handle the 100-mile ride.
1b – These people have looked further into the Tevis via articles, videos, and maybe even discussions. They have given a lot of thought to riding in the Tevis and have been on trail rides with other Tevis riders. Those riders who conditioned for Tevis and perhaps earned a Tevis buckle. They support this subgroup of people into riding the Tevis, sometimes with each other. 1b’s may start to condition themselves for the ride and training their horses for endurance.
1c – These people show a lot of interest in the Tevis. They have stated, publically, that they do want to ride the Tevis. Perhaps in the next one or when their horse is older. They’re doing all of their homework on the Tevis ride and its terms. They have made schedules for training or conditioning for the ride. Essentially, they’ve trained for the ride and decided to enter whenever they feel they and/or their horse can handle the journey.
1f – Finally we have group 1f group d&e don’t exist. Group 1f is actually a rider who has talked for a long time of riding Tevis maybe even years. This rider has the horse and has trained or at least ridden long enough rides to be convinced that their horse and perhaps they could finish the challenge. In fact this rider publicly talks about entering the ride. Further encouraged by all this riders friends that success is certain the determination grows. Then here is the very factor that puts this rider into the 1f category. This rider actually stops short of entering. Remember if you never start you can’t fail like in “F†grade. I know more than one person who had everything set and success was pretty certain but the fear of failure set-in and the rider would not enter. From then on the mention of riding Tevis is not mentioned
So there we have my personal categorization of Group #1!
Next blog will be about Group #2.
Stand by.
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Do you think you will aspire to a higher level and if so when? Please leave your comments..
