HORSE RADIO NETWORK INTERVIEW

Text from Horse Radio Network Interview Below

WHAT IS THE GREAT DISTANCE DERBY?

The Great Distance Derby is a year long game/tracking program.
It runs from Jan 1 till Dec 31 of each year.
Teams may register November - December 31st.
You track mileage using an app on your smart phone or an independent GPS system every time you ride or drive your horse.
You then enter that mileage to an online form that tallies it to an online Leaderboard.
Throughout the year you can see your TOTAL mileage with each Team.

A Team is you & your horse.
*If you have multiple horses you can create multiple Teams & track all your mileage on each of them individually.

Every Team gets their own online web page that has a photo & you & your friends or family can comment on. It's used to keep an online journal or diary of you & your horse's progress, rides/drives, stories of your year. Since anyone with internet can comment folks can cheer you on!

We also have a PRIVATE FB Group that some of our Teams like to use. It is used to share, encourage & connect with other Equestrians. We have had Teams find out that they were neighbors & didn't know it & begin riding together. Others who meet in different states together to ride. And lots of folks enjoy seeing the perspective from the saddle or cart from equestrians in different disciplines & on vastly different trails.

Unlike bigger FB groups or tracking programs, in our Derby you actually build friendships throughout the year. Our posts are intentional too...our FB Group is intended to MOTIVATE, ENCOURAGE & CONGRATULATE. While you can post/read complaints about the weather, work or life anywhere on FB our DD FB group is intended for the SUGAR! Sharing photos & stories of rides/drives; for Encouraging one another to improve skills or try new ones. Congratulating one another when we do.

And we encourage everyone to contribute reminding our most talkative to wait before their next post while pushing our quieter Teams to share their hard earned successes! We also get together for group rides or adventures in state & across state lines.

Of course we have AWESOME ALL WEATHER GEAR available ONLY to Current Teams as well as EVENTS & THEMES each month to encourage equestrians to cross train...There is so much we can do with our horses...be it trail riding, orienteering, packing, shooting, dressage, drills, eventing, hunting, jumping, driving, endurance & more, we are the place to connect with other horse addicts, our few rules are focused on our horses & fun. We delete any troublemakers or drama queens. We have a DRAMA FREE DERBY POLICY & offer a FAMILY FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT.

HOW DID IT START?

The Distance Derby was first run out of Nebraska. I was invited to participate in it in January 2013. I had just purchased my first horse in October 2012, Idunn, an Auction horse from Tennessee. A Fjord Quarter Horse Cross. Somebody's oopsie that is perfect for me! 2013 was our first full year of riding together & I thought it would be a great motivator to ride more...I live in Michigan & here half the year is Winter so you need all the motivation you can get!
 
As a new rider I wasn't solo riding yet so it also connected me with other riders but soon I wanted to ride every spare minute  so I learned to solo ride because there are very few ALL Weather Winter Riders in Michigan. People followed our first year through my Facebook posts & Team Page. As a novice rider & auction horse we bested a Hall of Fame endurance Bred Horse who lived in the West Coast & who's experienced rider was heading to the Tevis! We earned over 1000 Miles our first year!

We did this by eeking out 2 -3 miles a day in 20-30 Degree Temps often riding alone or with my husband & Aussie Shepard  walking along. We earned a spot in the Top 10 & folks following our story wanted to join. Too many for the DD folks to manage so they asked me to start a DD for our State, then the region & last year they struggled to find a volunteer to keep theirs afloat so we struck an agreement to continue as The Great Distance Derby keeping the name & intellectual property.

However a year long Derby with over a hundred Teams, thousands of mileage entries, events, gear, monthly themes, daily posts to manage & more...is ALOT of work to set up & manage. I didn't want to volunteer my time for folks to complain or be mean spirited in friendly competition. Nor did I want to exclude recreational riders or families. Most especially I wanted a HORSE FIRST PHILOSOPHY so folks used the Derby to build a better partnership with the hardworking horses carrying them. Not trying to reach some arbitrary number.

So our Great Distance Derby first rule is The Golden Rule - Be kind to one another & especially the volunteer offering this opportunity. We encourage folks to set their own mileage goals...for some people that is 100 miles a year, for others it 500 or for folks with healthy horses & lots of time a 1000. We have Teams from all over North America right now & look forward to Teams from other continents joining us. Some are families who have children with disabilities who ride together, some are endurance riders who have successfully competed & completed the Tevis, most are recreational riders from nearly every discipline who are horse crazy & simply working to improve their partnership with their equine. This gives them a way to track not hours but mileage on their stead. It is a simple measure with alot of reward!

OUR MOTTO: Smiles & Miles
 
WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING IT?

I do this because there isn't anything like it. Because I want to know each & ever year how far my horse & I have come in the simplest of measure...MILES. And because I believe in contributing to our horse community, I offer it to others.

While I support other organizations & clubs events, I am 40 years old & no longer have the luxury of time or desire to build consensus, entertain beauracracy or egos. I want to spend as much time with my horse as possible gratefully & will share that time with others committed to participating positively with their horses & the Derby.

There are lots of trail clubs, lots or organizations, ways to compete with your horse or track hours. But we are the ONLY one that keeps the FOCUS on FUN, ON PARTNERSHIP NOT PRIZES, And we PROUDLY BOOT OUT ANY DRAMA.

So many of our horse activities get buried in politics, prizes, power plays, BS or opinions. While we all have them (Opinions that is) we don't need to share them in this context. There are groups already designed to express the best way for this or that. The Distance Derby offers a TON of opportunities, Teams can enjoy them if they like but if they don't we don't allow people to spoil the opportunity for others.

Our horses are sensitive animals our attitudes transfer to them as well as to one another. We have no business bringing ingratitude to the saddle or cart! As horse owners we really are the luckiest people in the world...we should behave accordingly.
So what makes the GREAT Distance Derby Great is that we focus on the positive, on improving our partnership with our steads & SMILING & MILING ON!

There are no ribbons or big prizes here. Horswo(men) here aren't even measured by their numbers of miles...we promote The JOURNEY, the growing PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN HORSE & HUMAN, A VARIED SKILL SET...the SMILES in the MILES!

A minimum $25 Donation per Team helps to maintain & sustain The Great Distance Derby. We want to be able to offer this for generations to come & so we have to minimize the impact it has on our time away from paid work, family & our own horse.
SMILE & MILE ON! :)