About Chasing Dreams: The True Story of the Youngest Female Tevis Cup Champion:
Chasing Dreams: The True Story of the Youngest Female Tevis Cup Champion is the incredible, action-packed memoir of Sanoma Blakeley’s 2019 Tevis Cup championship, won while riding her beloved horse Goober, and the tale of how she became the youngest woman to ever become a Tevis Cup champion. Beginning her endurance riding career at the age of seven, Blakeley writes about the years of training and teamwork required to win the most challenging and famous 100-mile horse race in the world aboard a horse she had originally acquired for free off of Craigslist.
Blakeley places readers on the ride with her so that they can experience the thrill of the most exciting horse endurance race in existence. Blakeley and Goober survive narrow mountain trails winding through the Sierra-Nevadas, containing over 19,000 feet of elevation gain; three steep, grueling canyons; crossing the shoulder-high American River; riding at night with only the light of the moon to guide them; temperatures that soared over 115 degrees; and, most excitingly, the final neck-and-neck sprint to the finish against a four-time Tevis Cup champion and world class competitor after 100 miles of some of the most rugged mountain trails in the world.
When Blakeley and Goober cross the finish line just a few feet ahead of their competition and Blakeley becomes the youngest woman in history to win the Tevis Cup, a lifetime of hard work that began when the author started training as a small child and who had long dreamed of winning the Tevis Cup was finally rewarded. Chasing Dreams contains action, heartwarming twists, and an epic ending that will leave readers in tears.
Author bio:
Sanoma Blakeley is the youngest woman to have ever won the Tevis Cup, the most famous 100-mile endurance horse race in the world. Blakeley began competing in endurance horse races when she was seven years old, and has since competed in 99 competitions with 31 different horses. She has won 25 races, placed second 11 times, and finished third 14 times. When she won the Tevis Cup in 2019, she was 18 years old, and was featured on CNN and dozens of other media outlets. Blakeley’s writing has appeared in Endurance News, Tevis Forum, and Arabian Horse Life Magazine. She regularly blogs for Riding Warehouse. Blakeley lives near Bend, Oregon, where she works at her family’s renowned horse training facility, Blakeley Endurance Stables.