Halliday woman places third in world-class endurance event

HALLIDAY, N.D. – You could say Dante LaPierre is an endurance junkie.

She’s been competing in 100-mile endurance horse races since she was a kid. When she’s not racing, she’s training for races on her ranch near Halliday.

Her hard work is paying off.

Dante LaPierre has spent the past year dreaming about and training for a victory lap.

She and her horse, Dennie, finished third in this year’s Tevis Cup Ride.

“We pulled it off together,” said LaPierre.

The Tevis Cup Ride is a 24-hour, 100-mile endurance race through some of California’s toughest terrain. LaPierre shaved an hour and 20 minutes off their 2021 time.

“I improved my time and my placing,” she said.

In 2021, LaPierre and Dennie finished in eighth place, an accomplishment she clipped into Dennie’s hair for this year’s race.

“If you ride top 10, you get the permanent number. So, I clipped the 8, next year we will be number three,” she explained.

The ultimate goal: replace this eight with a one. But Dante said, while winning is the ultimate goal, it’s the competition and the training that she and Dennie live for.

“I’m hooked!” she laughed.

LaPierre said one of the biggest challenges of the Tevis Cup Ride is the terrain. She and Dennie spent a couple of months prior to the race training in California.

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