Man Verses Horse Marathon
There has been many a bet made in a western saloon so it’s no surprise that the contest I’ll tell you about over the break was thought up in a British pub. I’m Susan Allen stay tuned for Open Range. I’ll wager that the number of bets made over a pint of beer is impossible to count because most are forgotten by the next morning. That wasn’t the case when a pub owner challenged a hunt master nearly 30 years ago. Remembering when Jesse Owens was given a head start in a sprint against a horse in the 1940’s and won, the pub owner made the statement that a man could equal any horse over a signficant distance across country” thus the Man against Horse Marathon was born. With the exception of the years that they allowed mountain bikers or teams of runners the outcome has been the same as it was this June 12 in a quaint little town in Wales. Win goes to the horse. Traditional marathons are run on roads while the Horse verses Man race covers rough terrain, over hill and dale forests and mooreland some obsticles favoring man, others the horse. Like “running with the Bulls” the race has grown to become an international event for this quaint hamlet. This year over 300 racers challeneged forty- four horses. The runners get a head sart and the horses must be stopped midway for a veternary checkup and cleared to continue, something I doubt the racers I saw on You- tube would pass. Don’t expect Chariots of Fire but the you –tube video of the race posted on today’s Open Range report on aginfo.net is pretty darn entertaining http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_otWXz7vU8&NR=1