Re: RC: Show and Tell

["Kristene Smuts" <Ksmuts@sarcc.co.za>]

>>I did LD's for an entire year before I considered my first 50.>>

Howard, and everybody else, I want to pick up on this as well.  In every bit of research I've done into how to do endurance correctly, the 3 year plan is considered to be the accepted way of building an endurance horse.  Nowhere have I read anything that contradicts this plan.  For those of you who don't know the 3 year plan - year 1 you should be doing 30 - 40kms in competition; year 2 you should be doing about 60 kms and only in year 3 do you look at 80 kms.  Of course, the 100 milers take another year or two.  (It's even in the RC guidelines)

I get many oldbies who laugh at me when they hear that I'm still doing my 30 kms and ask if I'll be doing 80s next year and when I tell them that I'm sticking to my plan, they give me a smile you normally reserve for "simple" people.  Their argument is that the horse "learns" that you only do one leg - poppy cock!!  (Flame away, I have my fire suit on ;-)) )  Horses are far more intelligent than that and it will take maybe 2 rides of more than one leg for him to learn the new routine.  Besides, I'm not fit enough for an 80km right now which means I won't make rational decisions where it comes to the health of my horse, so I won't do it.
  
>>Even if you train really well, before the endurance ride, you just never know how your horse is going to act at their first ride.  I've done it with three different horses that I own and each time, they turn into a creature I hardly recognize.>>

Oh boy, have I been prone to this!  My normally well behaved stallion becomes a bucking bronco, wanting to chase down every hose in front of him when we're at a ride.  I've now decided that I have to relax about these antics because he'll learn as time goes by.  But also, the fitter he becomes, the more he pulls in the beginning and it takes longer and longer for him to settle into the rhythm we've trained for.

As a little aside, the last proper ride we went to, we made the mistake of camping next to the route the riders take on their way out (our starts are staggered 5 mins apart with a max of 10 riders per group - 80 kms start first, then 60 then 30).  Hubby built a very nice pipe corral and Ibn was very happily munching his hay when the first group of riders came past.  He did a bit of a rodeo routine in the little paddock and I thought he was going to kick right through those pipes.  As soon as the riders disappeared, he settled down as if nothing happened - until the next group of riders.  I then decided to saddle up and warm up, although our starting time was another 45 mins away.  More than once did we cover in record time the distance from one end of one rugby field to the other end of two rugby fields, with hubby holding the sun screen and wondering where we went to when he looked away!!

Kristene