Flirt with Ecstacy, the wonderful mare known as “Kally” was an incredible endurance athlete that represented Canada with her owner and partner, Wendy Benns for many years. The beautiful horse who sadly passed away in June 2022 in her 31st year, was more importantly, a beloved equine partner to Benns. Many in the endurance world know that her legacy lives on in her equally talented daughter and granddaughter, both who remain well loved and training with Benns.
Flirt with Ecstacy (Kally) April 15th 1991 – June 1st 2022.
Photo credit: Rose Sullivan Photography
Kally was a 1991 part-Arabian by Ecstacy and out of Raffsham Sakira, making her predominately Polish Arabian with a bit of American Saddlebred blood thrown in for good measure! Benns, of Campbellcroft, Ontario, purchased the chestnut mare as a green broke 4-year-old in 1995. Kally was Benns’ first endurance mount whom she trained herself. Kally’s remarkable performance record spanned 12 seasons from 1996 to 2009, with a few years off on mommy duty, for a total of 12 years of distance riding competitions.
In the Ontario Competitive Trail Riding Association (OCTRA), the remarkable mare completed 3,381 miles in competitive trail and endurance and was a member of the Gold Medal team at the Canadian Competitive Trail Riding Championship in Flesherton, Ontario in 2004. Over the years, Kally earned many accolades including being named OCTRA’s High Point Endurance Horse and High Point Overall Horse as well as many others.
In her career she accumulated 2,330 endurance miles in the American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC). In all rides she completed over the years, she placed in the Top 10 or higher and had 12 first place wins. She had a 76% completion rate, including completion of five 100-mile rides; two 75 mile rides; two 80 mile rides, won Best Condition seven times, and high vet score 12 times! Kally and Benns were named members of the AERC Decade Team. This award recognizes an achievement that represents the foundation on which AERC was formed by acknowledging a rider who over a long period of time has kept an equine sound and actively competing.
At the 1999 Pan American 100 Mile Endurance Championship in Manitoba, for their first time on the Canadian team, they finished 20th. Then at the 2001 Pan American 100 Mile Endurance Championship in Vermont, they amazingly took 8th place and stood for Best Condition. Kally was ranked first on the short list for the 2003 Pan American 100 Mile Endurance Championship in Washington State. She did not disappoint, and placed 10th with their fastest 100-mile time of 10:10 over a mountain course.
The duo was selected for the UAE World Cup in Dubai in February 2003. They spent a month enjoying the United Arab Emirates with their Canadian teammates and trained in the desert. They competed in the event but did not finish.
Even with all their honours, Benns has said that her most memorable moment with Kally was when she safely delivered a beautiful chestnut filly in 2006, named Flirt with Fyre (“Firefly”), who proved to also be a natural in the sport of long distance.
Benns has been amazed and has learned firsthand how Firefly inherited her mother’s incredible competitive nature. She currently competes on the 15-year-old mare, who followed in Kally’s footsteps and was named High Point and Best Condition Endurance Horse in Ontario in 2021. And her four-year-old granddaughter, Flirts Ferrari (Fergie) isn’t far behind and has just been lightly started under saddle.
Benns and Firefly just returned from the U.S.A. where they tied for first place at the Vermont 100-mile endurance ride on July 16, 2022. “Flirt with Fyre and I are the first Canadian entry to have won this historic event,” said Benns. “We covered the same trails and crossed the same wooden covered bridge that her dam Kally and I travelled over together in 2001 at the Pan Americans. It was a surreal and emotional experience for me, and I told Firefly she sure made her mom and me proud with her incredible finish carrying on her legacy in the sport we both love.”
Three generations of amazing mares from left to right: Flirts Ferrari, Flirt with Fyre, and Flirt with Ecstacy
“Kally took me all over the world in endurance rides,” said Benns. “She was very competitive and would not slow down on her own. She was the type of horse that could easily get into trouble with the wrong rider, one who didn’t watch for subtle clues on how the horse handled the stress of the competition, weather, altitude, etc. She taught me how to be a patient, responsible rider and how important conditioning, pacing and strategy is in this sport.”
Flirt with Ecstacy was retired from active competition in 2010 at the age of 19 in serviceably sound condition and enjoyed a well-deserved retirement on Benns’ farm for another twelve years. Even during her retirement, Kally could be seen racing her daughter across the fields just for the fun of it!
The three-time Pan American, World Cup and Decade Team Endurance Horse really was one in a million.