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Just do it. Or not. Trust your gut instinct. Seems like if you do a 4 hour 25 mile ride without taking
the edge off, an easy 50 shouldn’t be a problem. You could always pull your horse if you get nervous
about it. I don’t have too many miles myself, but I learned early on that finishing at 25 miles doesn’t really do Beau
nor I much good, but he was 8 y.o. with lots of trail experience at our first ride. Drako will probably have a lot more
LD on him than Beau ever will because he is starting as a 4 y.o. and is just starting his LSD training. Even then
I probably won’t do more than two or three LD’s with him before I try a slow 50 when he turns 5.
You know, I really don’t mind Beau being tired after a ride. It just means that he will be that much
fitter for the next one if I give him the appropriate rest afterwards. Like I said in a previous post,
a hard 25 miles of a 50 mile ride was too much for him, and an easy 50 had him galloping after I turned him
loose in the pasture afterwards. I would just choose an EASY 50 so you wouldn’t over face yourself
and JUST DO IT!
Personally, I wouldn’t want to do a slow ride if I didn’t have to. I really hate doing distance at a walk –
makes my butt sore and I’m sure that Beau doesn’t appreciate my butt contact the whole ride! And
we maybe do a slow canter for only a small percentage of the ride at the fastest – it’s not like we are really racing.
Just enough to use a different muscle grouping and break up the pace a little to keep it fresh.
My first 50 was done with almost a full out gallop the first part – and much tail dragging the second half.
Wasn’t my choice ride strategy, but we were both amped up and it was a “racy” type ride with an uncontrolled
start. That was the longest ride I so far.
Just to give you a sense of perspective, I heard the horse that came in 2nd at Swanton 100 that kept pace with
wonder Red (Crystals Charm- 1999 Haggin Cup winner) is a 6 year old horse. I just checked Red’s record and
his first rides in 1998 as a 6 y.o. were multi-day 50 mile rides. He is now pretty much winning 100’s
with BC’s. Of course, Heather is very, very experienced and Red is a class by himself, but Heather
subscribes by the 50 mile first ride theory. Of course, she was a junior under Maryben!
She took her new mare to Fireworks 50 and rode a slow ride for the mare’s first competition ride anywhere and
they did just fine. The mare was an arena queen before Heather acquired her, and did the ride with just a few
months of sporadic conditioning since Heather has been preoccupied with Pan Ams. (Gawd… I’m starting
to get excited about PanAms now! I guess that’s why I’m rambling…..)
Kathy Mayeda
Only 250 AERC miles (and only one LD ride that doesn’t really count) so I’m not an oldbie.
Yeah, yeah – I’m bored and looking for trouble.
Beau Joust – same 250 AERC miles.
-----Original Message-----
From: Deanna German [mailto:finishis2win@columbus.rr.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 2:33 PM
To: lanconn@tds.net
Cc: CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com; Ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC: just doing it (was Show and Tell and questions for oldbies)
>Jim Holland wrote:
>Exactly my perspective. You spend 3 years training a horse to do
>Endurance. He is trained beyond your wildest dreams. His manners are
>perfect He is so fit that he could "gallop" 25 miles....so then you do
>25 mile LD...and he thinks..."Oh, Boy! This is fun!" and he flys through
>the thing and never gets the edge off. Just makes him worse next time
>cuz you have "conditioned" him to this. However, if you take him to a
>50 on his first ride....particularly a HARD 50...but do it slow and
>easy, it changes his whole perspective.... You then work from there depending
>on how he does on that 50......If the horse is struggling in that first 50,
>then you reevaluate what he can do.
I started the questions for oldbies, so I'll reply to this one.
Is all of the above truly in the best interest of the horse when both are
novices?
OK, let's start with I don't think my horse could "gallop" 25 miles. But I
did do 25 miles in a little over 4 hours (ride time not including hold) and
I did not take the edge off. This was a CTR and the mare won GC. Where am I
on your scale?
Here's my thing: I'm ONLY concerned about what's best for the horse. This is
a young mare (coming 6YO) trained and conditioned by a rider who has a mere
few hundred miles of CTR experience. I have never done an endurance ride.
Yes, I'd start out after the pack; yes, I'd plan to go slow (10 - 12 hours);
yes, I'd spill my guts to the vet at every check. But wouldn't it be better
to wait until next year or the year after? Then at least she's more
physically and mentally mature. I'll have done a few two-day 50's or 60's by
then too.
I'm weighing the pros and cons. I want to do what's best for my horse. I
want her to enjoy this sport and I want her to still be capable of doing it
into her late teens. Itend to be very ambitious and competitve and I want to
be sure I'm NOT doing this for me. I'm worried that I'll be too stupid to
recognize that she needs to be pulled at mile 35 or 40 (only 10 or 15 miles
to go!). I don't want to hold her back either. I'm just not sure I'd
recognize if she were struggling or not.
Deanna -- wanting to hear from a (then) newbie who did what Heidi and Jim
are recommending
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