Re: RC: Fit horses

[Teresa Van Hove <tvanhove@uswest.net>]

I just cant agree with this statement.  What if your horses 
fast as they will ever be able to go for 50 miles is still
less than the front runners pace that day?  If you cant set
the pace for them instead of letting them follow the
instinct
to stay with the front horse they'll still be going too
fast! 

Misxfire@aol.com wrote:

> After 10+ years in endurance I have come to the conclusion that a
> horse should already be in condition to go as fast as he/she can for 
> any ride entered. 

A better rule would be that a horse should be ridden at 
the pace its are conditioned for and trained to obey the
rider instead of its desire to be at the front, or with
the pack.  (And the rider has to listen to themself, not
their
ego and not fall into the trap of rationalizing that its
better 
to let the horse go than to have them waste energy fighting
to 
go - or to stay with rider X because they know rider X
never gets lost - I've fallen into these traps myself)  

Teresa