It’s All in the Family – 2024 Tevis Cup
Mother–Daughter Duo take First and Second riding mares who are Three-Quarter sisters,
by Cindy Reich
The Tevis Cup 100-mile endurance ride is one of the most challenging 100 milers in the U.S. Difficult and challenging terrain, often extreme heat and smoke from area fires, it is a true test of horse and rider, and a competition that is dominated by purebred Arabian horses and horses of Arabian bloodlines.
Jeanette (“Jay”) Mero, DVM, a 10-year veteran of Tevis Cup rides and Haggin Cup winner in 2021, was riding “Lena” Ozark Kaolena SWA (Kaolino x FMR Ozark Eklipse) a 12-year-old chestnut mare. Jay’s daughter Reyna was riding “Clippie” Chndakas Eklipse SWA (Chndaka x FMR Ozark Eklipse), an 11-year-old grey mare.
Reyna Mero on “Clippie” (left) and Jeannette Mero on “Lena”
Roughly halfway through the ride, at the Deadwood checkpoint, Jay and Reyna arrived in familiar fashion. They were a constant in the top dozen or so of the riders, and when arriving at a checkpoint, would usually get their horses cleared quickly. “Our mares' talents are in their freakishly low heart rates and ability to recover their heart rates very quickly - making them metabolically superior animals, but they don’t have some of the raw, natural speed on trail other horses do. They are talented and fast enough, to be sure. But others have faster base speeds. So other riders would catch back up and pass them on the trail.”
Coming out of the second canyon past Deadwood, Jay asked the official checking numbers how many riders were in front of them. With a surprised look, he told them no one had come through yet— they were the first ones. As Jay related on her Facebook page, “I looked at Reyna and said ‘let’s go! Things just got deadly serious.’ As it turned out, we led all the rest of the day. We rode the rest of the day working hard to gain as much time on the next horses as we could. Always, every step looking over our shoulders. Never complacent. Never giving up. Always using their pulse recoveries to gain minutes in the holds. I had to make a lot of calculated decisions to allow them just enough time to eat and get cooled, while not wasting time. I’d time our water/cooling stops while out on trail, making sure we did not lose our focus and get distracted. I knew again in head-to-head face-offs on the trail our mares don’t have the natural speed others do. We had to run a very strategic race to hold our win. Yes, it was stressful, always waiting to hear hoofbeats behind us. But oh! It was so much fun! The mares had all the ‘bottom’ and stamina I needed. When I asked for more, for a little more speed, or for yet another hill to be climbed, it was no problem.”
On the trail
Jay and Reyna came into a checkpoint about 12 miles from the finish and Jay’s mare, Lena, was cleared very quickly to continue, but Reyna’s mare Clip still needed a little bit of time, so Jay settled in to wait. At that point, her daughter urged her to go on ahead as she had a real chance at winning the ride. Knowing that Clip and Reyna would be following soon, Jay and Lena forged on. Jay relates, “ Lena and I carried on out of the last hold at Quarry in the dark, as always with her - no head lamp or glow stick lights. Nothing. Just me trusting her to get us home safe. When I asked her to keep up the pace, to keep pushing, fearing another rider might yet catch us in the last miles, as has happened to others, Lena gave to me willingly and easily everything we needed to cross under those lights first! When I asked her to freely canter around the stadium on her victory lap, she had plenty more left to give in her gas tank. Her finish trot out was solid, sound, free flowing and ears up. That’s when I knew as another rider I deeply respect messaged me later, ‘you did it the right way.’ And then to have Reyna and Clip come cruising in 15 minutes later, holding on to her second place - with Clip also very sound and very happy looking, we were over the moon. It doesn’t get better than that. Except it did! The following day, Clip and Reyna were awarded the Haggin Cup for the best conditioned horse in the Top Ten.”
Reyna Mero and “Clippie" (Chndaka x FMR Ozark Eklipse) winning the Haggin Cup for best conditioned horse.
Lena and Clip are both out of the mare FMR Ozarks Eklipse (Cassels Roszlem x FMR Celebrate). As three-quarter sisters, their mother’s pedigree is full of the best of Polish racing lines such as *Orzel, *Czester, *Pietuszok and *Zbrucz. Both mares are very closely related on the sire line as well. Both Lena’s sire and Clip’s sire are by the great producing French race stallion Dormane.
Jeanette said Lena had been raced for a few years before she bought her from a picture. “I loved her frame. I went to Texas in March 2018 with a truck and trailer and an envelope of cash, and a wired deposit already put down on Lena. I visited several locations and looked at many horses. In the end I came home with Lena and a colt from Welcome Arabians.
Jeanette Mero and Lena entering the arena in first place.
“In the next six months I was so happy with Lena that I decided to buy her three-quarter sister Clip as soon as she was done racing. Clip came home in January 2019. And yes, I prefer and select for race breeding. I’ve ridden other lines. But now at this point in my endurance career I don’t see myself on anything that is not race bred. My mares are like human siblings. Genetically related, but very different personalities. Lena is exceedingly polite. And is full of want to and try. She’s never said no when I’ve asked anything of her. Lena hit the ground running on her endurance training and never looked back. She’s in her sixth year. After eight months of training and conditioning, she started her first rides in December 2018. She has over 3100 miles with 10 out of 12 100-mile finishes. With many wins and coveted titles, Lena is very hot and sensitive. But we respect each other, so it’s not an issue. She’s so honest. She’s just a joy to ride. Her sister Clip had to be made, however. Clip is balkier and a little bit ‘no, I don’t want to.’ Clip was always a follower and did not like leading. So, it’s taken years to develop Clip to the level of potential she has. But it was always in there. We just had to coax it out a bit more.”
