Horse Illustrated Magazine

Constantly drilling down on riding goals in an arena can become a grind for both horse and rider. Trail riding is fun and relaxing but lacks the thrill of competition. Another challenge for many equestrians is how to get the entire family together and engaged. One equestrian sport is potentially an answer to all of these: competitive mounted orienteering.

What Is It?

Competitive mounted orienteering (CMO) is part trail ride and part skill-driven treasure hunt, all rolled into a fun and easy-going activity. Marti Caldwell, president of the National Association of Competitive Mounted Orienteering (NACMO) and the NACMO Indiana state director, extols the attributes of the sport.

“CMO can be a welcome break from competing and all the stress for both horse and rider that frequently accompanies a busy show schedule,” says Caldwell. “We try to put relaxation, camaraderie and just plain fun first, and competition second or third. Recognition is about all we get for winning, although we do have year-end awards at the regional and national levels. Some of our riders are just out there to have a good time, but for other members, the competition is pretty important too.”

What Do You Need?

Any domestic equine may be ridden in a CMO, as long as they are 3 years or older. Riders from any discipline may participate and use any type of tack.

Current NACMO members come from a wide variety of other equine sports, including dressage, eventing, hunter/jumper, western riding, trail, 4-H, Pony Club and more. Many choose to make CMO a weekend outing for the entire family to ride together and enjoy the social gatherings.

On occasion, when the terrain permits, even driving horses put to a cart or carriage have taken part in CMOs. A rider or driver may compete as an individual or as a member of a team composed of two to six riders.

“One of the coolest things about CMO is that no one breed, size or age excels,” says Caldwell, who has also competed in both dressage and eventing as well. “Unlike endurance, where Arabians are king, or cutting, where you have to have a Quarter Horse, or dressage, jumping and eventing, where horses routinely stand 16 or 17 hands high, in CMO, horses, ponies, mules and donkeys may all compete. A lot of our older riders have started getting gaited horses, such as Tennessee Walking Horses, Missouri Fox Trotters, Standardbreds, Kentucky Mountain Horses and Paso Finos. Arabians are still popular, as are Quarter Horses. We have a few Haflingers, Thoroughbreds and warmbloods, and all kinds of grade crosses in our region, too. There’s also at least one donkey and a few mules that have come to our rides in Indiana and Illinois.”

What’s The Objective?

Billed by devotees as “the thinking rider’s sport,” the goal of a CMO is to locate a given number of objective stations hidden within a wilderness area in the quickest time. Riders are given a map and a written set of clues and may only use a compass to find the hidden objectives. Each individual or team’s start and finish times are recorded, with the elapsed time and the number of objectives found determining the winner.

The much-sought-after objective is a simple paper plate with a code written on it hidden along the trail and indicated on the CMO map. The clues are compass readings and cryptic references to landmarks that orient the competitors and guide them to the plates.

Five objectives are hidden in a short course, and 10 for a long course CMO. Once a rider or team locates one of the plates, they prove it by recording the code next to the clues on the back of the map.

Strategy is an important and entertaining part of CMO, since a number of competitors can be on the trail at one time looking for the same objective stations. The key is to quickly and efficiently find all of the coded plates without tipping off others to the locations. To that end, a certain amount of purposeful distraction and good-natured fibbing is part of the game.

CMO events are often planned over an entire weekend with a competition held each day and a pitch-in dinner and socializing around the campfire on at least one evening.

“This sport selects for people who are a lot of fun and want to come out and play with their horses,” says Caldwell. “We’ve become a close-knit group. For instance, any one of them would come and pick you up with their truck and trailer if you’ve broken down.”

It’s this camaraderie which glues people to the sport, and this discipline is sure to grow further as word spreads and new riders try their hand at a competition. To learn more, visit www.nacmo.org.

This article about competitive mounted orienteering appeared in the May 2020 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!