World Equestrian Brands Helmet Cam: Tonto Twist 50-Mile Endurance Ride

The Arizona desert never looks more starkly beautiful than between the ears of a horse under an unsettled sky. Ride along on the inaugural Tonto Twist 50-mile endurance race in this week’s Helmet Cam!

The scene: you and your horse turn down a trail that winds into the desert brush, curving between rocky outcroppings and rugged bluffs. Tall saguaros point up to the darkening sky and a light spattering of rain leaves circles in the dust. You glance around you and it appears that you and your horse are the only ones trekking across this inhospitable yet mind-bogglingly beautiful landscape, winding your way across the shadows of forbidding mountains. No telephone poles or roadways or fencelines mar nature’s beauty here.

Such are the scenes along the trail for the Tonto Twist 50-mile endurance ride, the inaugural version of which took place in January of this year! The race launched at the Apache Junction Rodeo Park Event Center and wound its way through Goldfield Mountains, Usery Regional Park and the Superstition Mountains through scenery that looks exactly like it came out of an old western.

Ride along with Ashley Pollock aboard her Tennessee Walking Horse mare Heart-Throb Hotel:

The Tonto Twist will be taking place again in 2019 on January 19! The Tonto Twist donates proceeds from the race to area charities — in 2018, that lucky charity was the Apache Junction Mounted Rangers. Learn more about the Tonto Twist at its Facebook page.