The 'one-man savior' and his mule

Sometimes the best stories from the annual Tevis Cup ride are the ones that occur well beyond the time the initial riders cross the finish line. Two years ago, Tevis rookie Brian Reome made a memorable debut for himself and those he stopped to help along the way. "He was like a one-man savior," said Western States Trail Foundation President Tony Benedetti. "All these disasters kept happening around him, and he stopped to help people out along the way." During the 2017 Tevis Cup, the Auburn native and his mule, Hondo, put their own riding expectations to the side when other struggling riders were in trouble. He said that some people called him heroic. Reome, however, laughed when looking back on that day. "I think I was really like a bad luck charm," he said with a chuckle. "I was just bebopping along and everyone just kept getting into pickles." For those Reome helped, though, it was no laughing matter. Around Swinging Bridge, Reome came across a rider whose horse was unfit to continue, shaking and vomiting and had "barrel-rolled" down a short cliff. Reome secured Hondo to a tree and went down to see if he could lead the horse back up to the trail. He and the horse's rider were able to get it back on track to get ponied up to the Devil's Thumb aid station. But Reome wasn't finished playing rescuer. Near Deadwood, a woman had been thrown from and abandoned by her horse about 30 feet down a steep slope. When Reome noticed her, he initially thought the worst. "I thought it was a body or a corpse wrapped around a tree," he said. "She looked like she was in bad shape, but she was a doctor, so she had the presence of mind to just chill out." The point of the ride was too narrow for any rider to pull off and immediately help. But Reome rode a ways down the trail until he found a wide enough spot to pull Hondo off. The returned to the canyon where the woman was and again did what he could to help her get out of trouble, pushing and pulling her back to the safety of the trail. He saddled her up onto Hondo and rode her to the Michigan Bluff aid station. "She was fine by the time we got there," Reome said. "It took over an hour on foot, so she got to have some food and water." At this point, Reome knew he was way past the 24-hour cut-off pace for the 100-mile ride. But taking note of Reome's actions was Ride Director Chuck Stalley, who Reome said granted him some extra time to finish. Even with the extra time, Reome made up ground quickly and still finished the ride with five minutes to spare. In a September article in Riding Magazine a month later, fellow rider Brenna Sullivan, who witnessed Reome's heroics firsthand, wrote that she cheered when she saw Reome catch up to her all the way at Lower Quarry, noting that Reome said, "I don't mess around." Reome was later thanked by one of the riders whom he helped out of trouble by contributing $500 to Reome's 2-year-old son's college fund. "I was going to step off that race track either a jackass or a gentleman," Reome said. "I wanted to be a man when the race was done. I thought about what I would have wanted my kids to do. Plus, I didn't take the race as seriously as others do." After sitting out the 2018 ride, Reome and Hondo will make their return to the Western States Trail Aug. 17 for the 64th Tevis Cup ride. Reome will be riding as a sponsor to Desiree Lammer, a junior rider trying to earn her first buckle.