By Seth Stapleton
Huron Daily Tribune (Bad Axe)
UBLY, Mich. (AP) — A lifetime of riding had prepared him for the moment. A significant birthday gave him the push he needed to finally commit.
So on his 70th birthday, longtime Ubly resident Richard Holdship decided he was going to embark on a horse ride from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron on the Michigan Trail Rider’s Association Shore-to-Shore Riding Trail. It was a journey Holdship had been thinking about for at least a decade, but health issues had held him back — until he finally decided to take the plunge this year.
“It’s something I had wanted to do for 10 years, but I was kind of reinvigorated on my 70th birthday,” Holdship told the Huron Daily Tribune. “I had the information on this ride and my grandson said, ‘Make your birthday wish, Grandpa,’ and of course my wish was to do this shore-to-shore ride. I did the paperwork the next day and started planning from that day forward.”
Holdship, who outside of heading off to Central Michigan University for four years, has lived his entire life in Ubly. He retired after 36 years in education in 2001. He served as a math teacher, athletic director and
principal at Ubly for more than 21 years. Then he became the principal at Huron Area Technical Center for the final 15 years of his career.
principal at Ubly for more than 21 years. Then he became the principal at Huron Area Technical Center for the final 15 years of his career.
He said he has been fascinated by horses since age 7, and riding horses since he was 10 — when he finally got his first one.
“My Dad always liked horses and I always liked them as a kid and begged for a horse, and he finally got me one when I was 10,” Holdship said. “The first thing I did when I came back to teach in 1965 — I bought a horse and brought it out here to the farm and started raising them.”
After making the commitment and taking the necessary steps to make it happen, Holdship set off Sept. 6 on the 10-day ride atop Rudy, his trusty 13-year-old Missouri fox trotter. Holdship’s wife, Ricki, would serve as their “rig jumper,” driving from camp to camp setting things up and tearing things down each day.
Although an experienced rider, Holdship had never been on a ride of that magnitude and had never pushed himself, or his horse, that hard before. The 225-mile ride would take him from the Mackinac City Horse Camp on Lake Michigan, through eight other camps in the upper-middle and eastern portions of the state, finishing in Oscoda on Lake Huron.
The ride brought its fair share of challenges to Holdship and Rudy, including unmarked trails, sweltering heat, and the need for meticulous care of both self and horse. However, possibly the biggest challenge for Holdship was simply getting out of bed. A notoriously late sleeper, Holdship said he was up between 6 and 7 a.m. and on the trail by 8 a.m. most days — and was still one of the last riders out of the camp.
Holdship said the most beautiful part of the ride was the stretch from the McKinley Camp to the South Branch Camp, which turned and twisted along the Au Sable River. However, the entire trip, in which he traveled an average of 25 to 30 miles per day, had him on cloud nine.
“It ranks the highest on my bucket list,” Holdship said. “Every day I thought, ‘This is as close to heaven as I’m going to get.’ Every day I was out there riding, it was very special.
