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The Western States Trail Ride, also known as the Tevis Cup, was born in 1955 out of a simple question: Could modern-day riding horses travel 100 miles in 24 hours? Several riders set out from Lake Tahoe, California, and journeyed southwest through the Sierra Nevada to the town of Auburn, proving the answer to be a strong yes. In the years and decades that followed, equestrians would retrace the trip as an annual race, testing themselves on a grueling route with more than 35,000 feet of elevation change along rugged mountain trails.

Damien Maloney, a Los Angeles–based photographer, learned about the event from a neighbor and was drawn to the competition’s Old West ethos, so different from the strict equestrian tradition he knew growing up in Waco, Texas. “It was interesting to see a horse culture that isn’t fussy or fancy,” says Maloney. “It’s humans and horses, and everyone’s having fun, but it’s still really hard. There isn’t any pageantry.” In the summer of 2023, he set out to document that unpretentious spirit, capturing horses and people as they navigated the dusty trails.