The latest trick in trick rider Kansas Carradine’s impressive equestrian career? Riding 300-plus miles across remote Patagonia in the famously grueling Gaucho Derby.
“Imagine yourself thundering deep into the wilds of Patagonia on horseback. You’ve got your steed and you’re navigating across some of the wildest terrain on earth attempting to win one of the toughest and most unusual equine challenges in history,” reads a description from The Equestrianists website. “This is the greatest test of horsemanship and wilderness skills on earth. This is the Gaucho Derby.”
Trick rider Kansas Carradine didn’t have to imagine it. She did it.
If you couldn’t be on a horse with equestrians from 11 different countries riding at the “end of the world” through the wilds of Argentina, enduring diverse terrains and unpredictable elements for the 2024 Gaucho Derby, the second-best thing might have been staying glued to the action with real-time updates. For this author, that meant direct messages from Carradine herself while she was in the saddle competing a continent away.
The Equestrianists, the organization behind the Gaucho Derby, the Mongol Derby, and other long-distance, multi-horse races, screened applicants to select 39 contenders for the 2024 race. Carradine’s bio on their website reads: “International trick rider and roper; avid skier, backpacker, animal advocate. Believes that horses are part of sustainable solutions to modern problems and that they keep us connected to nature. Devotes her life to serving nonprofits, family, and advocating for the betterment of all being.”
Not mentioned is that she’s also the daughter of David Carradine, widely remembered from the popular 1970s TV show Kung Fu, in which he played Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin monk traveling through the American Old West.
For the 2024 edition of the Gaucho Derby in Patagonia, 100 applicants were screened for the 310-mile endurance race. “Kansas stood out in her interview for her passion, personality, sense of heart, and her excellent horsemanship skills, which came on full display during the race,” says organizer Erik Cooper of The Equestrianists. “Kansas did a great job looking after her equine partners.”
Horses — and Hollywood — are in Kansas Carradine’s DNA. She is the granddaughter of renowned actor John Carradine, who, among many other westerns, co-starred with John Wayne in Stagecoach and became part of John Ford’s stock company. Dad David, in addition to his TV series Kung Fu, was known for his performances as Woody Guthrie in Bound for Glory and as outlaw Cole Younger in The Long Riders. David rode both on and off the screen, and father and daughter would enjoy riding together at their home near Malibu and at their Sun Valley ranch in Southern California.
“When I was as young as 2, there were a couple of high school ‘horse’ girls up the road who used to take care of horses in the neighborhood and would literally tie me onto the saddle with a jacket and take me riding on the beach,” Carradine, 46, says. “I’m now teaching horsemanship to the daughter of one of the girls who used to tie me onto her horse.”
When she was 5, she used to stop riders on the beach and “command” them to put her on a horse. “I would do anything to get to ride,” Carradine says. “And I would frequently fall asleep out on a trail. I have no memory of this, but it makes perfect sense because I’ve always been so comfortable on a horse. No matter where I lived growing up, there have always been horses in my life.”
Carradine started her professional journey at the age of 11 as a trick rider and member of the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls, the California-based professional trick riding, trick roping, Roman riding, and liberty travelling performance team. A decade later she joined the equestrian spectacle Cavalia, where she was a featured soloist who performed equestrian feats in five different acts and became renowned for her prowess at Roman riding a team of four horses. Later she worked behind the scenes buying and training horses for Cavalia.
It was about that time that Carradine picked up a rope and quickly excelled as a lasso artist, performing at many sporting events around the world. In 2008, ready to deepen her relationship with horses, she began to study Ariana Strozzi Mazzucchi’s Equine Guided Education and to explore the healing and spiritual connections horses have with humans.
Several years later, Carradine completed a certification program in HeartMath. “HeartMath Tools are emotional self-regulation techniques that have been tested and backed by over 30 years of scientific medical research,” she says. “We learn how to synchronize the mind-body functions through the intrinsic cardiac nervous system, or ‘heart-brain.’” In her practice of it, Carradine primarily focuses on helping the handler or rider become more self-aware, build confidence, and “develop an authentic presence.” She shares the science of the heart-brain connection and works with self-regulation tools that allow students to “show up better for their horses.”
The Gaucho Derby tests each rider’s endurance with a 310-mile course across challenging terrain from the start of camp to the finish line.
Even though the 10-day derby across Patagonia is touted as a competition, Carradine didn’t care if she was one of the first riders to cross the finish line. “For me it was always about connecting with the horses,” she says. The 500-kilometer multi-horse adventure race not only tests the skill of the rider but challenges their mental and physical endurance traversing high mountains and vast plains. Riders camp out for nine nights with only what they can carry on horseback.
To get ready for the endurance event — which consists of seven different horse stations and 19 remote checkpoints, complete with thorough vet checks, along a 310-mile course from the start of camp to the finish line — Carradine prepared intensely. “I was there in Argentina for a week of endurance riding before the derby itself,” she says. “Many of the riders did not have as much time to test their gear on the horses in the gaucho saddle and had what we affectionately called ‘yard sales,’ with their tack flying everywhere because their packs were not secure enough. I was so happy and grateful that I was well-prepared for what turned out to be a long and arduous ride. It truly pushes you to the limits of your physical endurance, your navigational skills, and your ability to handle the wilderness. One of the race directors said, ‘People think that the Gaucho Derby is a horse race, but it’s not. It’s a grueling wilderness survival expedition experience on horses.’”
An unexpected hiccup occurred when Australian rider Warwick Schiller’s horse went lame on day two. Warwick was the one who told Carradine about the race and became her partner for the derby after Carradine made it through the applicant screening process. The two had made a pact that they would stay together, so Carradine remained with Schiller at a camp for the night instead of forging ahead without him. Although they lost precious time, they ended up staying at a beautiful spot by the river and got to attend an authentic gaucho get-together.
I’ve always been so comfortable on a horse. No matter where I lived growing up, there have always been horses in my life. — Kansas Carradine
Along the way, Carradine was memorably paired with a little chestnut with three white socks and white blaze, whom she named Tommy because his attitude reminded her of her mentor, Riata Ranch founder and PRCA calf roper Tommy Maier. “He was so confident on his feet, and with his strength he was able to jump a six-foot-wide stream and scramble up the rock cliff on the other side,” she says. “I renamed him Tommy Roo because he jumped like a kangaroo.”
Where Carradine was in February — in the farthest remote reaches of the Southern Hemisphere — was about as far away as a gal on horseback from Southern California might ride, but, as with every goal she devotes herself to, the theme was the same. With Kansas Carradine, it’s all about the heart and the horses.
“The Argentinian landscape was the most serene and incredible on the planet, the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen,” she says. “It is Big Sky Country as much as Montana is, and spending six weeks there, I truly became part of the landscape. Toward the end of the journey, we reached the top of what must have been a 5,000-foot peak, with extraordinary rock formations, and then saw a chain of lakes as turquoise as Caribbean waters. As hellish as the grueling aspect was, I didn’t want the ride to end. At the end, I took off my horse’s saddle and bridle and did a little fancy dismount. After what we’d been through together — from laughter to tears, from stress to cheers — it was like entering the Pearly Gates of Heaven!”
According to The Equestrianists website, “The original “gauchos” were nomads on horseback who eked out a living from hunting wild cattle and native Patagonian animals.”
Learn From The Best
Carradine is currently hosting clinics in and around Compton, California, to help the Compton Cowboys develop greater trust and connection with their horses, as well as teaching them a more sophisticated form of trick riding; she’s also working with the Compton Junior Equestrians. Through her Circus Cowgirl company, she presents horse-centered clinics and corporate training designed to enhance mental health and emotional well-being (one of her most popular is The Heart Knows, a four-week series of HeartMath techniques). She’s also starting to lead Circus Cowgirl Adventures (the first is in Costa Rica in November; next year will be in Europe, with other camping wilderness adventures in Lake Tahoe and Oregon high country).
Find more on Kansas Carradine at circuscowgirl.com.
Read our exclusive interview with horsewoman extraordinaire Kansas Carradine.
From our October 2024 issue.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Kathy Gabriel Photography
