A Brief History of Endurance & I.L.D.R.A.

The modern day endurance riding sport was started by the late Wendell T. Robie (1895 - 1984) when he wanted a sport which involved "rapport with one's horse; companionship on a trail; and the opportunity to share the incomparable scenery of my home territory".

So he started the very first organised endurance ride - the 100 miles Tevis Cup in 1955. It was named after Lloyd Tevis, the long-time president of the Wells and Fargo Company (the Pony Express Trail). It was a huge success, and consequently, America soon started up 3 endurance organisations -

  • The Western States Trail Foundation (the Tevis Cup)
  • The American Endurance Rides Conference
  • The North American Trail Ride Conference.

Soon afterwards, endurance became a world wide equestrian discipline, moving onto Australia, the formed the Australian Endurance Riders' Association and held the first Tom Quilty Cup (a ride similar to the Tevis Cup) in 1966. Great Britain formed the EHPS in 1973, and the Summer Solstice, their most famous 100 mile ride, was first held in 1975. Many other European countries followed their example and started up their own official endurance organisations in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

ILDRA and Ancient History

New ILDRA members may sometimes wonder about the Association’s origins. These lie in two meetings in Belfast arranged in the summer of 1990 by Bill Buller, now ILDRA’s president, who recognised that Ireland had no coverage of one of the major equestrian disciplines. At the second meeting a committee was elected and the Association was formed, originally as the Northern Ireland Long Distance Riding Group. It was always envisaged that the Association would expand to cover the whole island of Ireland but there was initially no significant interest in the Republic of Ireland.

It was decided that the best way to promote the Association would be to start holding rides. At the second meeting venues were discussed and, when one extremely eminent horsewoman advised against holding rides outside Co Down on the grounds that “most of us live in Co Down”, she drew some very hostile looks from those present who had discovered that life is sustainable west of Glengormley. The first ride, a pleasure ride, was held at Tollymore, which is still one of ILDRA’s most popular venues. The second ride, held at Glenariff in October 1990, was the Association’s first competition, It attracted twelve entries for the twenty-five mile competitive ride and forty-four for the pleasure ride. The competitive ride at Glenariff and the ten mile competition at Baronscourt in November 1990 were both run as races but without a mass start: competitors were timed out individually with the fastest horse to pass the vet after the ride being the winner.

When the 1991 season began a system of optimum times was used for the CTRs, ILDRA had changed its name to the Northern Region of the Irish Long Distance Riding Association and it had acquired a set of rules. In the early days of the

Association there were mid-way veterinary checks even on the twenty-five mile rides. These were held on something of an ad hoc basis with riders being left to guess when they might take place. Rules became necessary to cope with riders who stuck to the letter rather than the spirit of the competition, like the one who, competing over ground which was familiar to him, charged round at high speed, put his horse in its trailer for an hour and then presented it to the vet at precisely the optimum time. There was also the occasion when, in the intervals of listening to the afternoon’s racing on his car radio, the officiating vet inspected one particular horse every ten minutes after the ride for at least an hour and a half until he was satisfied that it was sound.

Following the realisation that the optimum time system was unsuited to ILDRA’s activities, the present system of CTRs evolved. But there was no progressive grading, and the system of Bronze, Silver and Gold qualification now used by ILDRA did not come into effect until 19992. On the model of the Thistle qualifications used by SERC, it was predictable that ILDRA would choose to call its grades Shamrocks. This led to a vigorous discussion between two committee members (both English) as to the exact size of a shamrock. However the Chambers Dictionary definition of a shamrock as “a trifoliate leaf or plant” made all this somewhat metaphysical.

In 1993 ILDRA made its first venture into the Home International competition, wining that year’s competition in Scotland. This was followed by an increasing number of excursions to competitions on the British mainland, The prospect of Ireland hosting the World Equestrian Games in 1998 (does anyone remember that ill-starred venture?) inspired many riders to develop major ambitions and from 1995, when the first Wicklow Hills ride was held, interest in endurance riding in the Republic of Ireland grew. This led, ultimately, to the foundation of the Leinster Branch, and the re-naming of the Northern Region as the Ulster Branch. It also resulted in the establishment of FEI rides in Ireland and the continuing expansion of the calendar of ILDRA rides.

From a starting point at which no-one in ILDRA had any experience of endurance riding, the Association has developed steadily to amass an extensive knowledge of and expertise in the discipline… all in just fourteen years.

A History of I.L.D.R.A. by Dr Rosemary York

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