Niki Beck has been competing in endurance riding for over 10 years. She became involved in endurance while training a Thoroughbred in lower-level eventing.

“I loved going out and doing the conditioning for the cross-country phase; I would go out with my friend, and she said, ‘You really love conditioning the horses. You should just do endurance,’” Beck said. “I didn’t really know anything about it. I went to the website of the Mountain Region Endurance Riders, and they had great information there on how to get started. I did that, and I went and conditioned my little Thoroughbred mare, and we went to our first ride. That's how I got started. I just got hooked.”

Beck’s endurance career progressed to longer rides and higher-profile events, eventually leading her to compete at the 2023 FEI Pan American Endurance Championships in Chile.

“It started with a 30-mile ride, and I said, ‘Oh, I'll never do any more than that.’ And then before you know it, you're doing a 50, then you're doing a 75, and then you're doing 100s,” Beck said. “The limited-distance rides are the gateway drug. You do 100 (miles), and you're so tired. You think, ‘Oh, I'm going to drop back down to 75s,’ and you don't. You go do another hundred. It's fun.”

Though Beck started endurance riding with a Thoroughbred mare, she competed at the FEI Pan American Endurance Championships with 14-year-old Majestic Cloudy Boy—the only non-Chilean horse ridden by a member of the U.S. team. She bought the Appaloosa/Arabian from fellow endurance rider Belinda Daugherty.

“I was at a ride letting some other people ride my horses, and they were trying to qualify for the World Equestrian Games. I was just walking the horses, and I looked over and I saw Cloudy. Cloudy was in a pen, and we locked eyes, and for some reason I just fell in love with the way he looked,” Beck said. “He mostly was a cow horse up in the mountains packing salt for the cows, so he was really broke and really quiet. He has an incredible mind, and that's kind of what I needed. I had a couple injuries, so I didn't want to mess with anything that was a little squirrely. I just wanted something steady, and he was a dream come true.”

Beck trained Cloudy herself, and the two began competing in endurance competitions of increasing difficulty.

“I originally just had the goal of getting stars, completing the [FEI CEI] levels, doing the one-star, and then getting his two stars. I went ahead and got a three-star, and before I knew it, he was the top-ranked horse to go to the Pan Ams for the U.S.,” Beck said.

Though Appaloosas do not typically compete in endurance at the international level, Beck said the discipline is very welcoming to her and her horse.

“People can compete any breed of horse,” Beck said. “The thing I like about the Appaloosa combination with the Arabian is they have an incredible brain. So mixed with the Arabian and the athleticism of that breed, it's just a perfect combination.”

Though Appaloosa horses are often prone to night blindness and other eye issues, Beck said Cloudy has never had any major health problems.

However, Beck still emphasized the importance of maintaining her horse’s health during an endurance competition. There are multiple vet checks along an endurance course. These vet inspections analyze a horse’s heart rate, respiration, hydration, and gut health to make sure a horse is fit to continue the competition.

“A lot of times when a horse is worked at the speeds and distances we're going, if they're showing signs of fatigue, a lot of times it'll show up in their gut first,” Beck said. “Every once in a while, they'll have just a trot-by vet check out on the trail, where they just want to watch you trot by and see how your horse looks.”

Beck said that having a very healthy endurance horse is a “badge of honor” within the sport.

“One of the most coveted things to get at an endurance ride is Best Conditioned. Sometimes people would rather have that than a first or second or third placing,” Beck said. “If your horse is one of the top 10 horses to come in, you can show at the end of the ride for Best Conditioned. (The officials) watch your horse do some circles, and they look at the horse's attitude and his gait and everything that they would normally assess, but it's a big prize to win if your horse is looking the best after a long ride.”

Overall, Beck said her favorite aspect of endurance is the one-on-one time she gets to spend with her horse.

“It's just an amazing experience to be on some of these rides where you're out by yourself,” she said. “It's just an incredible challenge, and it's just you and him. There's just nothing like it in the world, to be there with your horse that you've trained and taken care of. It’s amazing.”

Beck also explained that she and Cloudy have an “incredible partnership.”

“I've never had that kind of a relationship with a horse. We just click. I know if he's getting tired; we just have a way of communicating with each other,” Beck said. “If he wants to go, I have to sometimes make sure he doesn't go too fast because he can be a little overzealous, and then he tires himself out, so we try to take care of each other in that way.”