The Great Endurance Horse Race of 1908

The 1975 movie, Bite the Bullet, with Gene Hackman, Candice Bergan and James Coburn, was about a 700-mile endurance horse race. The inspiration for the movie was a 600-mile horse race held from Evanston, Wyoming to Denver, Colorado, in 1908.

Western author, Jack Schaefer author of Shane and Monte Walsh, wrote a small book titled, The Great Endurance Horse Race, published in 1963, about the race. The race was started to prove the superiority of the western bronco over the Thoroughbred as a horse for the Army.

Although the race took place between Evanston and Denver, there were a couple of Sheridan connections.

This from The Semi-Weekly Enterprise, June 5, 1908 – Workman (who rode one of the winning horses, Teddy) has been riding his horse 50 miles a day for two months and the hope of the people of Cody and Northern Wyoming is centered on him, and they feel confident that Teddy will carry off the honors.”

F. H. Barrow, who recently resigned as editor of the Sheridan Enterprise to take the position of state news and telegraph editor of the Tribune, is now in Denver on a mission on which he has been sent by the people of Cody, says the Wyoming Tribune. So certain are the Cody people Workman and his horse Teddy will win the Post race that they commissioned Mr. Barrow to go to Denver, giving him $3,000 to wager at the best odds he could get, that the Cody horse would win. (In 1908, $3000 was a LOT of money)

The newspapers were full of stories about the race.

This from the Cheyenne Daily Leader, May 27, 1908 – Off for The Long Race. Denver Post Endurance Contest Entries Stop in Cheyenne. Five-Hundred-mile Horse Race to Start from Evanston Next Saturday Morning. – Twenty of the contestants in the Denver Post endurance horse race from Evanston to Denver, which is to start next Saturday morning, arrived in Cheyenne yesterday morning, in a special train, accompanied by their horses, and after a stop here of two hours departed for the west. Other contestants will be picked up at Laramie, Rawlins and other points en-route.

Accompanying the riders are R. E. Harvey, Walter J. Davis and C. E. VanLoan of the Post staff, who are to report the progress of the race. They will travel ahead of the contestants in an automobile. The horses which are to be ridden by the contestants in the race are about equally divided between bronchos and Thoroughbreds. The animals were critically Inspected by local horsemen yesterday, and opinion seemed to favor the chances of the broncho.

Several parties of Denver people in automobiles are to meet the contestants at various points along the route of the race. The first of these automobiles, carrying Colorado State Humane Agent Kerr and his family, arrived from Denver last evening, after a hard trip through the mud.

The distance from Evanston to Denver is 628 miles, and it is expected that the winner of the contest, who must ride one horse all the way, will be at least ten days in covering the course. Starting from Evanston next Saturday morning, the leading contestant is not expected to arrive in Cheyenne before the night of the following Saturday.

Centennial, Post Centennial, Wyoming June 13. 1908 –The Post Endurance Race The great endurance race from Evanston to Denver ended on Friday of last week, at 2:35 p.m. and proved to be dead heat between Charles F. Workman of Cody, Wyoming, riding Teddy, and Frank T. Wykert of Severance, Colorado, riding Sam. Both horses are broncos—Teddy weighing 1,025 and Sam 911 pounds.

The judges awarded the condition prize of $300 to Sam, the Colorado horse. First and second prizes are divided equally between Teddy and Sam, third prize goes to sorrel Clipper of Wyoming, fourth to Dex of Colorado and fifth to Bluebell of Wyoming. The race was ridden over 524 miles the winners making the distance in six days, nine hours and thirty-five minutes.

Although Sam was awarded the ‘best conditioned’ prize, it must be remembered that before the race, Workman rode Teddy from Cody to Evanston, a distance of over 300 miles.

Of course, there were always a few who threw in sour grapes. This from The News-Journal, June 19 1908 felt the race was simply a way to promote the Denver Post. – The endurance horse race, with Evanston as the starting point and the judges stand located in Denver, looks like full jeweled fake. The military spirit of the country has grown so strong that it was deemed essential to ascertain the class of horses which would show up best for army use. So there was quite pretext under which to pull off race that had for its real purpose the boosting of the Denver Post. Out of twenty-five starters five horses arrived in Denver, the Cody horse and Colorado horse, both bronchos, finishing the race in six days, going under the wire, neck and neck, in dog trot. That is an equality not often maintained in quarter-mile dash, but it seemed very easy in sprint of 600 miles.

Cody was proud of their entry, Teddy. This from The Wyoming Stockgrower and Farmer Cody, Wyoming — The Gateway To “Natures Wonderland” -Thursday, June 25, 1908 – Workman And Teddy Returned Home Yesterday – Workman and Teddy have arrived home at last, and the long penned up enthusiasm of Cody citizens knew no bounds. The cheers started at the depot when the vast crowd first caught sight of the smoke of the train and continued while Teddy was being unloaded, during the ride to the Irma and long after the last of the speeches were over.

In all it was a grand day for Cody and all its citizens were assembled at the Irma to welcome home “our Workman and our Teddy.” The Cody Cowboy Band never played better and rendered a number of selections.

Charlie explained the race to the vast crowd from start to finish, and confirmed the conclusions held by all. that if be had not been stopped, he would have won— alone, and easy.

There were 22 Colorado horses, 6 Wyoming horses, 2 Utah horses, 1 Nebraska, and 1 Mexican horse started in the race. Four Wyoming, two Colorado, and one Nebraska horse finished. There is NO doubt about which state produces the best horses.

Capitalizing on the race’s popularity, 18-year-old Eunice Scott, decided to ride the horse, Teddy, from coast to coast in 1912.

This from the Sheridan Post Wyoming, Friday, January 19, 1912 – To Make Cross Country Trip Wyoming Girl Wants To Start From Sheridan Says She Is Determined to Be Loyal to Her Native State

Wyoming girl, riding a Wyoming horse, will leave shortly on a coast-to-coast overland trip. She wants to start from Sheridan and wants the Sheridan country to derive the benefit of the advertising she will receive in the form of newspaper publicity.

Billings and Miles City want her to start from Montana and are offering great inducements in an effort to get her to alter her determination to be loyal to her native state. What is Sheridan going to do about it?

The girl is Miss Eunice Scott— broncho buster, champion long-distance rider, endurance champion, high diver, champion roller skater. and roper. At present she is employed in Billings, where, learning of her intention to make a transcontinental journey on her horse, “Teddy,” the, Chamber of Commerce, has conceived the Idea of sending her out as the official representative of the Sugar City, equipped with “boosting” literature advertising the resources of the Midland empire.

“Teddy,'” the horse, is a Wyoming bred horse -the animal used in the Denver Post’s Evanston to Denver endurance race, in which he made the 624 miles (there are various miles quoted in the newspapers. Most agree it was around 600 miles) in six days, eight hours and fifteen minutes. He is a handsome, well trained and hardy animal, in every way adapted to such a trip “Teddy” comes from Basin City.

Miss Scott, in the words of one of her staunch admirers, “has never been beat at anything.” She has won high-diving, racing, endurance, roping, skating and other contests innumerable, and for so young a woman is considered a marvel of physical strength and agility. Physical beauty is another asset which will stand her in good stead on her trip. One of her greatest feats was the winning of the 50-mile race at Billings July 4, 1911, in which she came under the wire first in a contest with some of the best horses and riders in the country. Her mount upon that occasion was “Doc Myer.” rated the seventh best bred horse in the world. F.D. Jennings of Billings, a pioneer of the west and for twenty-one years a resident of Sheridan County, is in Sheridan as the representative of Miss Scott, endeavoring to ascertain the sediment of the people of the city with reference to Miss Scott’s proposition. He has also taken the matter up with the Denver Past, asking them it they will go into the scheme and back the girl on her trip,

Miss Scott is fully equipped for the journey and in perfect condition She expects to start some time in March, going first to the Pacific coast and thence cutting down through the southwest, and across the desert to the east, with the Atlantic seaboard as her ultimate destination. She expects to earn her own way as she goes along, with exhibitions of rope twirling, skating riding, etc.

Does Sheridan want to start her off on the trip? Does Sheridan country want the advertise which would accrue as a result of the trip? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to prepare a story of the resources and assets of the Sheridan county for her use as she treks across the country?’ If so, who will take the matter up, the Chamber of Commerce, Business Men’s club or citizens of the city or all combined?

The last item to be found in the newspapers from 1912-1920 about the ride was this one from the Natrona County Tribune, February 28, 1912 – Girl Makes Transcontinental Ride – Sheridan, Wyo., and Billings and Miles City, Mont., are to join hands in defraying the expenses of sending Miss Eunice Scott on the longest horseback ride ever undertaken in this country.

F. D. Jennings, present owner of Teddy, the remarkable endurance racehorse, will permit Miss Scott to ride the animal. She will carry and distribute literature advertising the three cities. As soon as the arrangements are completed, she will start from Sheridan and ride to the Pacific coast, then ride directly across the continent to New York.

Endurance races were common around that time, but no evidence was found that she actually started or completed the long-distance ride. Even so, the Great Endurance Horse Race captured the imagination of many in Wyoming in 1908, and was the inspiration for a book and a movie.