When the 5-year-old gray mare arrived at Love This Horse Equine Rescue LLC in Mojave, Calif., founder and director Vera Valdivia-Abdallah knew she had a challenge on her hands.
“She was pretty healthy looking, but she was really wild and traumatized,” says Valdivia-Abdallah. “If you just walked in her pen, she would jump out. She did it multiple times.”
It was a familiar situation. The mare was one of eight at a “loose horse” auction (horses are bid on while running loose in a pen) that Valdivia-Abdallah bought.
“An Oregon man had been breeding mostly Shagya Arabians, and he died,” she explains. “The family called a horse trader who rounded 53 of them up. Most on that property were adult horses that had never been handled. She was such a difficult horse, and so not into people, that I named her after the Taylor Swift song, Love Story. It’s a version of Romeo and Juliet that has a happy ending. I like to give horses names with positive affirmations.”
Vera Valdivia-Abdallah, founder and director of Love This Horse Equine Rescue, says Love Story took about six months to tame after coming to her facility. Photo courtesy Vera Valdivia-Abdallah
Gaining Trust
She recalls that it took about six months just to tame Love Story. Valdivia-Abdallah and her daughters, Tamarah and Erna Valdivia, plus one other trainer, worked to gain Love Story’s trust. Even during this time, Valdivia-Abdallah had a special feeling about the mare.
“Once we got her going, I said that’s a Tevis horse right there,” she says. “Don’t ask me why. I just had that feeling.” California’s Tevis Cup is considered one of the toughest 100-mile endurance rides in the world. Horse and rider pairs have 24 hours to complete the race, with regular vet checks that must be passed to continue along the route.
Susannah Jones, a friend of Valdivia-Abdallah from Rough and Ready, Calif. (between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe), is always on the lookout for her next Tevis Cup horse. The three-time finisher of the race adopted Love Story in February of 2021. She took the halter-broke mare home and sent her to a trainer. The first trainer rejected her as too dangerous. The next trainer broke her to saddle, and eventually Jones began riding her.
But Love Story could still be difficult, and she bucked Jones off during a trail ride. Injured and sidelined for six months, Jones didn’t want Love Story to backslide, so Valdivia-Abdallah welcomed the mare back to Love This Horse Equine Rescue in October 2023. Her daughter Erna Valdivia began riding and conditioning the mare for endurance rides. Now 17, Valdivia learned to ride at age 5, and has been starting rescue horses under saddle since 2020.
Love Story intimidated Valdivia at first.
“The first time I got on ‘Lovie,’ I acted like I didn’t know how to ride, because I was so anxious,” she recalls. “I was shaking in my boots. She’s a big horse. She has a lot of power. It was just in my head, because she was Susannah’s horse, and I didn’t want to mess anything up and ruin her. But as soon as I stopped thinking about Susannah, and just treated Lovie like I was riding one of the rescue horses, she was easy to figure out.
“Lovie was very sassy,” Valdivia continues. “I had to be a little bit more stern with her because she’s a mare. She’d get upset with me, but then we pushed through it. When she’s with me, she knows she can’t get away with stuff.”
The two finished their first 25-mile ride together in California in January of 2024, then moved up to 50-mile rides, getting to know each other and building a strong partnership.
Valdivia took over the training on Love Story, taking her to the mare’s first 25-mile endurance ride in January of 2024. Photo courtesy Vera Valdivia-Abdallah
Targeting the Tevis Cup
After breaking to riding, many of Love This Horse Equine Rescue’s horses compete in endurance.
“Endurance riding is so good for starting our horses,” says Valdivia-Abdallah. “You have a different horse at the end of the ride. Even if somebody wants to adopt one as a trail horse, taking him to an endurance ride is valuable training. They must travel in the trailer, camp, stay tied to the trailer overnight, ride in a strange environment, ride a minimum of 25 miles under timed conditions, and complete successfully without having any issues.”
As Lovie and Valdivia accumulated more endurance rides and miles together, the “T” word came up again. Both Valdivia-Abdallah and Jones, now riding again, suggested the Tevis Cup. Jones volunteered to ride her other horse, Eli, and mentor Valdivia aboard Love Story.
“I was like, um, no!” Valdivia laughs. “I didn’t like the idea at first, because it’s Tevis. But once we got closer, and started making plans, I thought maybe it’s not too bad of an idea. I warmed up to it toward the end, and I was actually kind of excited for it.”
With Jones riding Eli and Valdivia aboard Love Story, the pairs rode two days and 50 miles of the Tevis Educational Ride in June, giving both newbies a good taste of the trail.
“It helped me, because the trails are narrow and the turns are pretty tight,” Valdivia says. “It gave Love Story peace of mind, too. It helped her watch her feet and be careful where she stepped. It was definitely a good experience.”
Erna Valdivia on Love Story (front) and Susannah Jones on Eli. Photo courtesy Vera Valdivia-Abdallah
Tevis Time
The atmosphere and idea of the Tevis Cup itself can make riders apprehensive, and the start can be chaotic. At the 5:15 a.m. start time on July 29, 2024, Love Story, not used to such a big field of 137 horses, was agitated.
Valdivia was nervous going into the Tevis Cup, but once the riders were able to space out she and Love Story relaxed. Photo courtesy Vera Valdivia-Abdallah
“I had to relax myself in order for her to be relaxed because there were so many horses around her, and all that adrenaline and energy,” Valdivia says. “It was nerve-racking for both of us.”
For most of the first 6 miles, Tevis is a single-track trail where it’s not possible to pass horses. It wasn’t until the trail opened up and they were able to spread out that Love Story settled down.
Jones rode her other horse, Eli, and mentored Valdivia for Tevis. Photo courtesy Vera Valdivia-Abdallah
The 2024 Tevis Cup was one of the hottest on record, particularly in the two deep canyons horses have to traverse, contributing to the low 40 percent finish rate.
Eli and Love Story successfully made it to Foresthill at the 68-mile marker at 9:35 p.m. They passed the vet check, but Jones and Valdivia opted to pull their horses and not continue the last 32 miles.
“Our horses were tired,” Valdivia says. “It was so hot. Their energy was just not up. The vet said we were good to go, but I felt like if we would’ve kept going, it would not have ended well for us.”
Valdivia and Jones decided to pull out of the Tevis Cup at the 68-mile vet check, where the horses were deemed sound to continue, but the riders felt they were tiring. Photo courtesy Vera Valdivia-Abdallah
A Happy Ending
And so ended the potential fairy tale story of Valdivia and Love Story LTH completing the Tevis Cup. But the plot doesn’t end there.
After Tevis, Love Story was slated to return home to Jones, her adopter. But that’s not how the cards fell.
“Susannah told Erna she was going to gift Love Story to her,” says Valdivia-Abdallah. “It took Erna a minute to process what had just happened. And then Erna totally lost it, jumping up and down and laughing and crying at the same time.”
Valdivia modestly downplays the moment.
“I figured after Tevis, Love Story should go back to Susannah, but I’m happy that she’s mine,” Valdivia says. “We got really connected doing all the endurance rides together. We know each other pretty well.”
Jones and Valdivia became close friends while training for Tevis, and afterward Jones decided to gift Love Story to Valdivia. Photo courtesy Vera Valdivia-Abdallah
Recipe for Success
Since incorporating in 2016, Love This Horse Equine Rescue has rescued 702 mostly Arabian horses and adopted out 534, and currently has 125 in its care. The horses come from a combination of owner relinquishment, law enforcement seizures, and low-end auctions.
What contributes to the group’s success is Valdivia-Abdallah’s focus on attempting to get every horse broke to ride before offering them up for adoption.
“Since I come from a training background, I get the horses going under saddle, because a riding horse will find a home,” she says. “They’re endurance horses, therapy horses, trail horses. We’ve had horses move on to hunter/jumper careers. We have one adopter who shows in hunter under saddle and dressage at Scottsdale [Arabian Horse Show], and this year she’s gone into ranch riding. So they’re really versatile.”
By taking the time to rehab and train rescued horses, Love This Horse Equine Rescue proves that adopted horses can not only become great companion horses, but they have the potential to perform at the highest levels of their chosen sports, including endurance riding’s legendary Tevis Cup.
This article about a Tevis Cup love story appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!
