Mother, daughter finish 1-2 in Tevis Cup

In her sixth successful ride, Jeanette Mero can finally claim the most coveted title in endurance riding: the Tevis Cup. The Mariposa native completed her 100-mile journey to Auburn's McCann Stadium at 10:05 p.m. Saturday night to win the 68th Tevis Cup, finishing with a time of 17 hours and five minutes. Mero has been a consistent top-10 finisher at Tevis for several years and won the Haggin Cup in 2021, but a first-place finish eluded her until Saturday. "I honestly gave up thinking it would happen, and I was happy enough with winning a different cup. I'm kind of still in awe," Mero said, noting she was still nervous as she crossed the finish line in Auburn. "At that point, you're still praying that the horse is good, and you gotta get through the vet check to win. This was 20 years of hard work and there's nothing like this. The Tevis Cup is the biggest win in our sport. It's just amazing." Mero said the difference this year was that everything went right for her and her horse, Lena, a 12-year-old Arabian that now boasts four Tevis finishes of her own. "Today was a day most athletes would recognize as everything was perfect from the time we left in the morning and it went all day long," Mero said. "(Lena) was just on all day. I just couldn't ask for a better day. That's all that it was." Finishing second behind Mero was her daughter, Reyna, who notched another top-10 herself. Reyna spoke on what it meant to finish second behind her mother, expressing how proud she was to reach the pinnacle of the sport. "I'm pretty happy with the result. I wish I could have came across the finish line with her, but I'm glad our horses look great and she got the win and I came in right behind her," Reyna said. "It was really, really exciting. Just finishing and riding with her all day and coming in first and second, it was definitely an experience of a lifetime." Reyna said she and her mom were even throughout the day, but when her horse, Clippie, began to get fatigued down the stretch, she decided to not push her further than she needed to and let her mom pull ahead. "When we reached Francisco's, my mare started getting a little too hot and I just didn't see the point because I wanted my mom to win anyway so I stayed back, let her eat and we just cruised on in after," Reyna said. Her decision paid off, as she was awarded with the Haggin Cup on Sunday. The Haggin Cup is awarded to the rider whose horse is deemed to be in the most superior physical condition among the top 10 finishers. She said Clippie wasn't fazed by the high temperatures because it is similar to what they are used to in Mariposa. "We live in a really high heated area so the heat didn't affect us as much as I thought it was going to, but it definitely was pretty difficult throughout the day," Mero said. "We had to manage them really well, had to use a lot of electrolytes, had to dump water on them as much as we could. When we got into vet checks, we would hop off every time so it was just a matter of management in the entire ride to combat the heat." Rounding out the top three was 2019 Tevis Cup champion Sanoma Blakely. In total, 90 riders finished out of the field of 140.