Horsemen have always been a superstitious lot. For the Tevis Cup, a 100-mile equestrian endurance ride from Lake Tahoe to Auburn, Calif., riders pull out all the stops to improve their chances of completing the race in the required 24 hours. That includes calling on lucky charms, good luck trees, special numbers, and horoscope readings.

Riders from around the U.S. as well as Canada, Japan, and Australia are gathering in Auburn this week to acclimate and complete pre-ride sections of the Western States Trail. This is the rational approach to familiarizing their mounts with the steep rock-strewn sections they will travel, often in the dark.

Riders like Jonni Jewell, Decatur, Texas, are warming up their lucky charms as well. "I carry a little pin with hair from a horse that completed Tevis seven times," Jewell explained.

Jeremy Reynolds, Los Gatos, Calif., two-time winner of the Tevis Cup, commissioned a special necklace of a racing horse emblem containing four horse hairs, each from a horse with a special story. "It hasn't come off my neck since I got it," said Reynolds. Reynolds also likes to ride under the entry number 32. "Thirty-two was my high school football and baseball number, and those were fun times," he explains