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On a July evening last summer, Shea has left the race's last checkpoint on her purebred Arab, Sur Sherif, with what seemed like a comfortable lead. Bu now Steve Shaw, on his half-Arab, Renegade, made his move.
"The horses had their necks stretched and ears flat like racehorses," Shea recalls. "But we had three miles to go. If we kept it up after all we'd been through, we'd hurt our horses. So I pulled Sherif down to a trot, and watched Steve gallop off into the night."
Yet, less than a mile from the finish, Shea overtook Shaw walking his tired horse, picked up her pace, and cantered to her first Tevis victory in over a decade of endurance competition.
"I've never been so elated," Shea says. "But no one's impressed in this sport when you win one race. People admire you for finishing high for years on end, taking care of your mounts the whole time."
Shea clearly is into horses for the long haul. This fun-loving, fit and feisty mother of two owns and runs the Ricochet Ridge Ranch just north of Fort Bragg. Though she feels inspired by competitions, like her 1989 Tevis victory, her major efforts involve caring for a string of 80 horses - including some rare Russian Orlovs - and introducing both novice and expert riders to equestrian delights on the Mendocino Coast.
Ricochet Ridge Ranch's huge string can accommodate 6-year-old children with comfortable ponies, or mount adult first-timers on docile beasts that walk placidly when and where they're told.
Yet over half of Shea's customers are serious, experienced riders. These get a chance to press some serious, endurance-trained horse-flesh, including spirited Arabs and a few graceful, majestic Orlovs.
 Ricochet Ridge Ranch Owner Lari Shea
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"Are we ready? Then, tally ho!"
Two riders who followed Shea from Ricochet's tidy corral and barn area were very ready. They'd gotten to know each other here on a weeklong coastal horse trek the previous year. Now they'd returned to celebrate their honeymoon by riding through the magic coast terrain that held so much sweet memory.
These were Green Beret Lieutenant Colonel John Nilon, 40, from MacDill Air Force base in Tampa, Florida; and Lieutenant Colonel Deborah Brown, M.D., 38, chief of staff in anesthesiology at Ft. Belvoir's hospital in Virginia.
Cantering on the Beach
One happy circumstance of Ricochet Ridge Ranch is its proximity to Mackerricher State Park, at the south end of Ten-Mile beach - a swath of surf-pounded sand that arcs north to Ten-Mile creek. It's one of the few places in the world where you can live the fantasy of cantering past crashing waves toward a misty horizon, while a freshening sea breeze tosses your horse's mane.
Lari Shea is a guide to follow in more ways than one. An active life has given this 44-year-old businesswoman the energy and body of a teenager. Her vibrancy shows up in a keen awareness of her environs. She reaches out to touch the leaves of vegetation as she rides by, discourses on the natural and human history of the area we ride through, and -always- stays atop relations between horses and humans in her charge.
Nilon, who takes private riding lessons weekly, seems up to any equestrian challenge. But his new wife, Brown, describes herself as more of a beginner, and "a real fraidy boots" about riding the open beach on a lively Arab named Red Bird.
No problem. Shea engineers a switch in mounts and a change in stirrup lengths. Then Nilon gets to canter down the beach on Red Bird, while Brown trots through the dunes on a sedate black appaloosa named Black Eagle.
Shea's amicable relations with timber company Georgia-Pacific, local lodge owners and ranchers gains her entry to the green coastal hills that rise above the beach and roll inland. On a high knoll the party dismounts, the contents of saddlebags are disgorged, and a fine lunch - spiced with horse stories - is enjoyed, while shimmering fog quietly drifts in from the sea.
Then it's on to more miles of riding among groves of young redwood trees and purple wild iris.
"I didn't know we'd get to see this again," Brown whispers to her husband, reaching back to take his hand as they ride together on the trail. "I'm so glad we came back. So very glad."
"My major satisfaction," Shea says, "lies in earning my living by doing something that gives people so much pleasure."
She still has a photo of the tiny pinto pony that gave her her first ride at age 3. Born in England of a wartime marriage between a British woman and American soldier (her nickname "Lari" is short for Hilary), Shea eventually found herself growing up in Ohio. There, she went nearly every day to a nearby pony riding ring to work in the stable in return for riding time.
She kept two dressage horses to ride while earning her anthropology degree at U.C. Berkeley. When she moved north to the Mendocino coast in 1968, the horses came along. She taught horse husbandry for the College of the Redwoods, offering riding lessons in her spare time. When her marriage ended in the late '70s, she found herself low on funds, saddled with horses and kids to support, and facing a hazy future.
The Orlov Breed
With characteristic energy, she decided to try forging a life from what she loved. Her discovery of the charms of the Orlov horse was part of that decision.
Lari puts her champion Orlov Stallion, Nature's Ballet, through his paces |
The Orlov breed was begun from Arab and Danish warmblood stock in 18th century Russia by Count Peter Orloffsky. The horses first came to America in an opening bout of détente: In 1959, Nikita Kruschev presented Orlov stallions and mares to industrialist Cyrus Eaton in gratitude for his help in starting U.S. grain sales to the Soviet Union.
A son of those Orlovs - a stallion named Nature's Ballet - did well in 2,000 miles of a coast-to-coast race in 1976. Aided by her friend, veterinarian Kerry Ridgway, Shea acquired Nature's Ballet's half-Arab son, Tzar, then the venerable stallion himself.
Now, Nature's Ballet - going by the grandiose nickname "Blue" - gets to frolic with mares at Ricochet Ridge Ranch, siring a string of the Arab-Orlov crosses Shea feels will be the future mount of choice for endurance rides.
"These horses have the spirit and endurance or Arabs, but an Orlov's big bones, long stride and sweet disposition," Shea says. "And something else - what every horseman calls 'heart', the will to give that last little bit. Some horses have it, some don't; some people have it, some don't. Without it, you'll never be tremendously successful."
The Orlov mounts bring you close to the soul of Shea's operation. No one rides them without her supervision. Before she would let me take an Orlov out, she wanted to see me ride the stallion, Nature's Ballet, around an arena without allowing him to get distracted by the nearby mares.
Making Strides
That was satisfactory, so we headed out to the beach. And it came to pass that I found myself cantering over the sand on Tzar, the stallion's son and Shea's favorite dressage horse. Back when Tzar was being broke at age 3, Shea says he used to explode with energy, jumping high into the sky before arching his back in a buck.
Now, a decade later, a snaffle bit an some light leg pressure are all that's needed to keep that huge energy pouring down the beach in graceful, effortless strides. It feels as though I'm astride a smoothly oiled bunch of steel bearings and powerful springs, upholstered in gray horsehide and responsive to my every whim. Sunshine sparkles on the surf and a fragrant sea breeze wreathes around us. I'm enmeshed with the coastal scene in a way that is sensual, rare and fine.
You know, I originally thought Nature's Ballet a rather prissy, silly name for a big stallion like Tzar's dad. Now I found myself thinking that this is not a bad name for an Orlov. Not bad, at all.
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