Auburn woman, 78, earns 25th Tevis belt buckle: 'I'll quit riding ... when it's not fun anymore'

At 78 years young, Kathie Perry is still kicking up dust in the sport of endurance riding. The Auburn resident earned her 25th Tevis Cup belt buckle Sunday, finishing 30th. She rides with nothing to prove and embraces the challenge each ride presents. Perry started endurance riding in 1969, the same year as Woodstock and the moon landing. She was living in the Bay Area when her husband and brother decided to invest in quarter horses and try their hand at the sport. As the two prepared for their first ride in Virginia City, Nevada, Perry decided to give it a go herself. "Of course, naturally, we had to buy a horse for me," Perry says. "We went to the Arabian-type horse at the time, but because we lived in the Bay Area, we did not have a lot of space for the horse." That brought the Perrys to Auburn in 1972, where Kathie set her sights on the Tevis Cup. "Everybody knows about the Tevis Cup when they get into the sport," Perry says. "My sights were set on it right away, and the goal was to ride the Tevis Cup." In 1975, she achieved that goal, completing her first Tevis ride. Throughout the years, Perry has attempted the ride 33 times and finished 25, winning the race in 1978. Perry rode the race alongside son James in 1976, 1977 and 1981. She has ridden 12 different horses over her Tevis career. "If I don't train it, I don't ride it," Perry says. "I don't believe in jumping on a horse two weeks before the ride and not knowing that horse. I like to have a model that I only ride a horse that I've trained specifically for Tevis." Perry says she will take the horse up to 700 total miles in the months leading up to the ride to make sure it knows the trail. She focuses her training on the canyons and final stretches of the race, noting they can be the most challenging parts, depending on weather. "If it's hot like it was (last) Sunday or Saturday, the canyons are brutal. I mean, it's 120 degrees down there," Perry says. "It all depends on the horse, you know? It depends if he is an uphill horse or downhill horse. A lot of the approaches on race day are judgment calls." No matter the differences in each horse, Perry says she enters each ride with the same mentality and goal. "My mentality is I'm going to ride to the finish line. There's always going to be bumps in the road, but I always go in with a 100-percent sound horse," Perry says. "I know the trail, so unless something happens, unless he hits a rock or something, I pretty much know that I have a solid horse that day." Perry says she always makes sure to focus her training on the last 15 to 20 miles of the ride so when the horse gets tired at the end of the day, he knows where they are and how to get home. As much as she has accomplished in the ride and world of endurance, Perry still feels like each race provides a challenge and is fun, even three decades later. "The entire Tevis ride and Western States trail is very, very challenging and demanding," she says. "The high country has a lot of single tracks, a lot of rocks, a lot of boulders, a lot of trees you go around. That's a very challenging part of the ride. Throughout the ride, this ride doesn't get too much easier." The challenges are what keeps her in the races, however, noting that having ridden 12 different horses on the trail, no two rides are the same. "I have as much fun training my horse for the Tevis as I do riding in the Tevis," Perry says. Asked if she will be back to chase a 26th belt buckle in 2023, she says, "I'll quit riding the Tevis when it's not fun anymore."