reply to NATRC Swanton by Guest

["KIMBERLY PRICE" <kmprice51@hotmail.com>]

Hi Deanna,

I think I lost points but not DQ, and if I did so be it.  Of course ride 
management knows, I told them my story especially since I had a very hard 
time mounting from then on.   I may also be DQ'd for not doing the ride 
Sunday as I was too sore.  I was in the ride for fun anyway, not 
points...and next time I will listen to my inner voice.

I do trot downhill on training rides at times, just not all the time.  Yes, 
you should train for the way you want to ride but in competition you 
sometimes ride harder then you would in training rides too.  If you rode 
hard all the time your horse would be overridden...make sense?  You 
condition the horse so he can do when asked, but not so much you are 
stressing him needlessly everytime you go out....

Many top ten endurance riders I know will not constantly trot downhill 
during training yet they do during the rides, but their horses have been 
brought to condition to withstand it without over doing it...

As far as pacing goes:  many riders, especially 100 milers will plan their 
pace according to the ride and that day's conditions.  They may hold back 
until 85 miles or so and then let it rip, saving their horse  for the finish 
and passing all the ones who went too fast too early and used up their 
horse.  I think endurance allows more planning and managment by the rider by 
not having those point to point limits but hey, it is always fun to try 
something new too!

Lastly, I like my time to start at p&r when the HR is down...encourages 
walking in and having a recovered horse at the start of the rest period.  I 
did really like coming in, having 15 minutes go by and then getting a pulse 
taken, and goodbye.  Just another little difference but one too that doesn't 
encourage taking care of the horse ahead of time so they truly do have 15 
minutes of recovered rest.

Thanks for your comments!
Kimberly (&Mystery the Morab)

************************8


Deanna German finishis2win@columbus.rr.com
>We were going down this long stretch of very steep
>shale...loose flat white rock....normally I would get down
>and walk but in NATRC you are not allowed to.  ....  If he
>had put his head down I would have tumbled forward and
>crashed down the hill.  I stopped him and tried to get him
>to step sidewards to get off and he just could not.

>So, I slid my left leg over his neck and hopped down ......
>I could move my arms ok, just very sore to breath and
>so walked him the rest of the way down.

Kimberly, I'm sorry you had a mishap and happy that you were not injured
badly.

I do not ride NATRC, so I don't know the rules, but didn't you  DQ
yourself by leading the horse down the hill? In our CTR rides, we're
required to report any forward motion to the ride management. (Honor
system, but you'll usually be seen by another rider anyway.) Equipment
failure or failure to use equipment that could prevent failure (in this
case a crupper), while unfortunate and can lead to unhappy circumstances,
is not really good enough to justify leading your horse in a CTR. Forward
motion while off the horse can be justified if a spot in the trail becomes
unsafe. Ride management will know if a number of people come in and say,
"hey, that wooden bridge with all the mud on it got really slick after it
started to rain" and will likely rule that it's OK that the rider lead the
horse over it.



>Note, we hardly ever trot downhill single track trails on
>the side of mountains in training rides, but this is
>competition and you do in competition things you don't
>do everyday in training rides.

Hmmmm..... if I don't train for it, I don't do it. I'll take penalties or
DQ myself to keep me and my horse safe.

Ya know, I see this all the time in CTR. Competitors get tunnel vision and
get fixated on  "gotta get there in this amount of time." People take
gambles and do things with their horses that they didn't prepare for.
People will lame up their horses to make time. For God's sakes, take the
time penalties! Go the pace you need to negotiate the trail safely or take
the time to get off and readjust the saddle .... or whatever needs to be
done!.


>What I don't like is your pace is set for you.

The whole idea of CTR is to stress the horses equally and then assess
their condition and compare it to determine placings. Stressing equally =
all horses cover the trail at as close to the same speed as possible.
That's essentially what makes it different from endurance.

I understand why you don't like the point to point time requirements. I
wouldn't like that either. That's too much pace dictation. We're given a
time window (say 4 to 4 1/2 hours), so the riders can go faster during the
cool of the day, then meander during the heat. It still ends up that the
horses are stressed equally because, guess what? Virtually all riders go
faster in the cool of the a.m. and slow down for the second half.

Deanna (Ohio)


Kimberly M. Price


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