This past weekend, Elmer Bandit and his owner/rider Mary Anna Wood achieved a new record for lifetime competitive trail riding: 20,720 miles. The 37-year old half-arabian gelding passed the previous record held by Wing Tempo this past weekend when he completed the 29-mile North American Trail Ride Conference at Kanopolis State Park near Lindsborg, Kansas. 

Elmer’s pace during the event averaged 5.25 mph. Think about it: if you take that pace and apply it to his competitive miles, that would be 3,946.6 hours or 164 and a half continuous days of riding. And those numbers are only for his competitive miles; they don’t include the countless miles and hours spent training and conditioning.

20,720 miles covers a lot of ground. It is the equivalent of riding from San Francisco to New York and back four times! Or riding from New York to Hong Kong . . . and back! 

Mary Anna currently has no plans to retire Elmer. Who knows how much farther the two can go.

Read more about Elmer’s latest accomplishment.