The endurance of Elmer Bandit
111 yr old man wins obstacle test/endurance hike with grace and finesse, carries woman over the finish line. Just 230 more miles and he'll have 20,540 mile under him, just shy of a world record! Watch him October 4 as he does it again in Manhattan, Kansas.
I am inspired both by him and the woman who cares for him...
Such feats of strength and athleticism, concentration, enthusiasm and... well... endurance are legendary, and they do happen. Can you even imagine a 111 yr old man doing such things?
Elmer Bandit is a 37 year old Half-Arabian horse, and in a world in which horses do not often survive over the age of 20 and rarely to 30 years of age, Elmer Bandit is an inspiration to everyone who has been watching him. (Horse years are about 3 or 4 to our 1) One competition at a time he eats up the miles, carrying his lifetime friend and rider Mary Anna Wood of Independence, Missouri over 60 miles in two days. Taking carefully placed obstacles and difficult maneuvers in stride he earns scores that knocked out all the other competitors over the two days. Unbelievable.
What can Elmer Bandit teach me about myself? Hmmm...
The importance of:
*Good diet
*Consistent exercise
*Good, vigilant, and active health care that includes my doctor and my family (nobody on the planet is more vigilant than the owner of an equine athlete!)
*The importance of trust and perseverence
*Doing what you love keeps you young. Never be defined by your age and what you should be doing.
*... and having someone who loves doing it with you
All these things work together and are vital for optimal health.
There's more....
Every day I am inspired by my animals. My horses show me beauty and trust that has inspired poetry, songs and art throughout history. And they remind me of the importance of responsibility - they get me up in the morning and keep me going through the day. My cats teach me humility as only a cat can. My dogs - well, they teach me that it doesn't matter what I've done, how I look or what mood I'm in. I'm still loved beyond all reason and comprehension.
I'm going to be thinking a lot about Elmer Bandit this week. As I struggle with my chronic health issues and the pain I try so hard to shake, I'm going to try harder to walk a little quicker, make a few extra trips with laden grain buckets, and try to do something that pushes my body just far enough, hard enough to help me and not enough to hurt me. Someday, I would love to meet Elmer Bandit.
I'm also going to give the 'old man' Naseri, aged 22 (that's 66 in horse years) - my feisty, Insulin Resistant, gray haired Arabian stallion with whiskers - a few extra minutes and an extra hug tonight. Then I'll pray for one more good day for him as I help him battle his illness, and for me as he helps me battle mine.
Meet 'Uncle Elmer':
From the story: The Ever-Ready Gelding
"Elmer has developed a unique collection of skills. He... rolls and urinates on command. An equine botanist, Elmer has perfected selective grazing at the trot, Wood reports. He divides plants into three categories- edible (raspberry and mulberry), inedible (sassafras) and "will-do-in-a-pinch" (dogwood).
And trailers? No problem. Elmer jumps the two and a half feet in and out of Wood's two-horse model.
Elmer even mentors younger horses. "Several horse owners call him 'Uncle Elmer' because he's good at leading an inexperienced horse into a trailer or baby-sitting a new horse down the trail," says Wood.
But all those years of experience do give a horse some pretty strong opinions. For one thing, Elmer doesn't like to get his feet wet, so he is becoming an expert at keeping dry during creek crossings.
"You would swear he has X-ray vision and knows where the rocks are," says Lucy Hirsh, DVM, a veterinarian, NATRC competitor and one of Wood's good friends, who was mentored by Wood. "I recall one water crossing with logs in it where other horses were scrambling and getting wet above their knees. Elmer picked a path through the middle along a little rock shelf and barely got the tops of his hooves wet. The judges were amazed.""
I am inspired both by him and the woman who cares for him...
Such feats of strength and athleticism, concentration, enthusiasm and... well... endurance are legendary, and they do happen. Can you even imagine a 111 yr old man doing such things?
Elmer Bandit is a 37 year old Half-Arabian horse, and in a world in which horses do not often survive over the age of 20 and rarely to 30 years of age, Elmer Bandit is an inspiration to everyone who has been watching him. (Horse years are about 3 or 4 to our 1) One competition at a time he eats up the miles, carrying his lifetime friend and rider Mary Anna Wood of Independence, Missouri over 60 miles in two days. Taking carefully placed obstacles and difficult maneuvers in stride he earns scores that knocked out all the other competitors over the two days. Unbelievable.
What can Elmer Bandit teach me about myself? Hmmm...
The importance of:
*Good diet
*Consistent exercise
*Good, vigilant, and active health care that includes my doctor and my family (nobody on the planet is more vigilant than the owner of an equine athlete!)
*The importance of trust and perseverence
*Doing what you love keeps you young. Never be defined by your age and what you should be doing.
*... and having someone who loves doing it with you
All these things work together and are vital for optimal health.
There's more....
Every day I am inspired by my animals. My horses show me beauty and trust that has inspired poetry, songs and art throughout history. And they remind me of the importance of responsibility - they get me up in the morning and keep me going through the day. My cats teach me humility as only a cat can. My dogs - well, they teach me that it doesn't matter what I've done, how I look or what mood I'm in. I'm still loved beyond all reason and comprehension.
I'm going to be thinking a lot about Elmer Bandit this week. As I struggle with my chronic health issues and the pain I try so hard to shake, I'm going to try harder to walk a little quicker, make a few extra trips with laden grain buckets, and try to do something that pushes my body just far enough, hard enough to help me and not enough to hurt me. Someday, I would love to meet Elmer Bandit.
I'm also going to give the 'old man' Naseri, aged 22 (that's 66 in horse years) - my feisty, Insulin Resistant, gray haired Arabian stallion with whiskers - a few extra minutes and an extra hug tonight. Then I'll pray for one more good day for him as I help him battle his illness, and for me as he helps me battle mine.
Meet 'Uncle Elmer':
From the story: The Ever-Ready Gelding
"Elmer has developed a unique collection of skills. He... rolls and urinates on command. An equine botanist, Elmer has perfected selective grazing at the trot, Wood reports. He divides plants into three categories- edible (raspberry and mulberry), inedible (sassafras) and "will-do-in-a-pinch" (dogwood).
And trailers? No problem. Elmer jumps the two and a half feet in and out of Wood's two-horse model.
Elmer even mentors younger horses. "Several horse owners call him 'Uncle Elmer' because he's good at leading an inexperienced horse into a trailer or baby-sitting a new horse down the trail," says Wood.
But all those years of experience do give a horse some pretty strong opinions. For one thing, Elmer doesn't like to get his feet wet, so he is becoming an expert at keeping dry during creek crossings.
"You would swear he has X-ray vision and knows where the rocks are," says Lucy Hirsh, DVM, a veterinarian, NATRC competitor and one of Wood's good friends, who was mentored by Wood. "I recall one water crossing with logs in it where other horses were scrambling and getting wet above their knees. Elmer picked a path through the middle along a little rock shelf and barely got the tops of his hooves wet. The judges were amazed.""
Tags: animals, chronic, headache, inspiration, migraine, pain
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Comment by Ellen S on October 31, 2008 at 9:32am - Update: "Half-Arabian Elmer Bandit trotted under the finish line to set a new competitive trail mileage record of 20,720 miles, 201 days after his 37th birthday. The North American Trail Conference event took place Oct. 25-26 at Kanopolis State Park near Lindsborg, Kan. " thehorse.com
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