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PAT FITGERALD Endurance Rider=

Patrick Jerome ‘Pat’ Fitzgerald was born July 20, 1930, near Dushore, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania. He died near Reno, Nevada on July 15, 2015, He was one of the first stars of the veterinarian-controlled sport of endurance riding. He was the second person inducted in the Tevis Cup Hall of Fame and the second person inducted into the American Endurance Ride Conference (A.E.R.C.) Hall of Fame. The Reno, Nevada area resident and his Arabian horse Ken won the 1963 Lake Tahoe to Auburn, California 100-mile endurance ride, which is now generally known as ‘The Tevis Cup Ride.’ He competed successfully all over the West, and parts of the Midwest. He also completed the Tom Quilty 160-kilometer endurance ride in Australia. He promoted endurance riding and was known for helping other riders, especially young people. He was an active endurance rider from 1958 until 1986. He completed 11,133 miles in AERC sanctioned rides, all of which were at least fifty miles per day. (It is important to note that there were far fewer endurance rides in which to participate in those early days. It is also important to know that endurance riding is strictly an amateur sport. There are no money or other valuable prizes in A.E.R.C. endurance riding.)

Fitzgerald was the first person to discover that Rush Creek Land and Livestock Co. and Hyannis Land and Cattle Co. were both producing horses capable of becoming top-flight endurance horses. Both ranches were in the Nebraska Sandhills. Two years after he found Ken at Rush Creek, he discovered a gelding named Razlind at Hyannis. His wife, Donna Fitzgerald, riding Razlind, finished second in the 1965 and 1966 Tevis Cup Rides. (10) In 1968, Pat Fitzgerald found a bay Arabian gelding at Hyannis named Witezarif on which Donna Fitzgerald eventually won a record-setting six Tevis Cups beginning in 1970. Witezarif, a grandson of the famous Witez II, is generally regarded as the greatest endurance horse of the Tevis Cup era (1955 to the present). In the years after the emergence of those three horses, many other riders from all around the country followed Pat Fitzgerald’s example by going to those two Nebraska ranches and buying endurance prospects many of which became champions.

Some endurance writers consider Donna Fitzgerald to be the greatest rider in the Tevis Cup era.

In 1969, Verne Albright wrote a book called ENDURANCE RIDING? PAT FITZGERALD! It describes Pat Fitzgerald’s endurance riding techniques. The book can be read on the link below. In 1970, Fitzgerald riding Quist, another horse from Rush Creek, finished second on the Tevis Cup Ride behind Witezarif and his wife Donna as they won their first Tevis Cup. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Fitzgerald was well known for often shepherding groups of youngsters and their horses through many endurance rides.

EARLY YEARS:

Fitzgerald grew up in Cherry Township, Sullivan County Pennsylvania. His parents were Lena Stiff Fitzgerald and James A. Fitzgerald. He had ten siblings. His father was a farmer, and a disabled miner. Their home had no electricity or telephone.

He attended a one-room/one teacher school. It had eight grades. He quit school after the eighth grade in order to help support his family. When asked in a July 1885 interview with Lucille Schuler, co-editor of the Arabian Horse World, what he did when he left school, Fitzgerald said, “I drove a team (of heavy horses) in the Pennsylvania lumber woods. And one winter it got so cold, and the snow was so deep that we couldn’t work, so I sewed pajamas in a pajama factory with a double-needle machine. I drove truck as a youngster, and I went into the mines for a while, but my mother objected to that. She said, ‘If you can’t make a living on the top of the ground, don’t bother with it. Give up.’ And that was some good advice.”

At the age of seventeen, Fitzgerald joined the U.S. Air Force, which at that time was newly separated from the U.S. Army. Not long after his honorable discharge, from the Air Force, Fitzgerald began working and living in Reno, Nevada. He also lived briefly in Alaska.

PERSONAL LIFE

He and his wife Donna had two children Michael Fitzgerald and Heidi Jo Fitzgerald. Heidi Fitzgerald died of natural causes in 2012.

The Fitzgerald family lived in a house Fitzgerald built himself. It is located on several acres a few miles south of Reno. That property has direct access to trails and old dirt mining roads on public lands which were useful for conditioning endurance horses.

In Western Nevada, Fitzgerald initially operated a restaurant. From the early 1960’s until 1977, he and his wife Donna, operated a successful riding stable at Lake Tahoe called Stateline Stables. The business ended only because of the loss of the lease of the property on which it was located.

When asked in the Schuler interview to describe himself in three sentences, he said, “Well, he enjoys riding. And he enjoys life. That’s two. I just kinda enjoy things. I’ve got no plans. I don’t see anything more than tomorrow, and I try to learn a little bit from yesterday.”

LATER YEARS AND DEATH

In 1977, after the Stateline Stable location became unavailable, Fitzgerald became an independent trucker hauling bricks and other loads over Donner Pass to Northern California. He continued that work until he was about 78 years oldchanging snow-chains during many winter trips. In the mid-1980’s, Fitzgerald took up the sport of endurance running. He completed the 100-mile Western States Trail Run three times. He died in his home on July 15, 2015.

LEGACY:

For about fifty years, the award buckles received each year by the riders who successfully complete the Tom Quilty endurance ride in Australia and the famous Virginia City 100 Mile Trail Ride in Nevada have carried an engraved image of Pat Fitzgerald riding his gelding, Ken. Those traditions continue.

LINKS:

ENDURANCE RIDING? PAT FITZGERALD! WORDPRESS

teviscup.org (The Official Website of the TEVIS CUP)

aerc.org (The Official Website of the American Endurance Ride Conference (A.E.R.C.)

nastr.org (The Official Website of the Nevada All State Trail Riders)

REFERENCES:

Albright, Verne R. (1969) Endurance Racing? Pat Fitzgerald, Bookshelf Press, p. 7. (Pbk.)

Shuler, Lucille (July 1985) “An interview with Pat Fitzgerald” Arabian Horse World: 418.

Northern Nevada Memorial Veterans Cemetery, Fernley, Nevada Patrick Jerome Fitzgerald.

1940 United States Census, Cherry Township, Sullivan County Pennsylvania

teviscup.org (The Official Website of the TEVIS CUP)

aerc.org (The Official Website of the American Endurance Ride Conference (A.E.R.C.)

nastr.org (The Official Website of the Nevada All State Trail Riders)

Oleson, Lori (2017) Endurance…Years Gone By, Oleson Press, p. 16. ISBN-13: 978-1519161017.

Langer, Marnye (2013) The Tevis Cup To Finish Is To Win, The Lyons Press, ISBN 1-59228-148-6

Weil, Shannon Yewell (2013) Strike a Long Trot Legendary Horsewoman Linda Tellington-Jones,

Turtle Rock Press, p. 58. ISBN 978-0-9885212-1-6

Suhr, Julie (2002) Ten Feet Tall Still Marinera Publishing, California, ISBN 0-9713772-0-0

Albright, Verne (May 1975) “The Tevis Cup” Arabian Horse News 40.