Ridecamp: [RC] re: re:just do it.

Tiffany,

You may have not read between the lines there.  The rider was new.  The
horse had probably done endurance in the past if he went to pasture at 9
and was bought at 11.  Its a big difference bringing a horse that had
been fully 'legged up' back from a long lay-off than getting one ready
initially.  It also makes a big difference, riding at just over 5mph,
vs. going faster.  Basically those 50's were very long slow distance
rides.  And we don't know the pasture the horse was in, or how demanding
the 12 training rides had been and how easily the horse handled them.  

>  A Tevis finisher (6 times) invited me to accompany him on the NASTR
>   > 50-miler, north of Reno NV.  He only intended to "finish" and assured me we
>   > would get finish the ride.  At that point I had 12 rides on my horse, the
>   > longest one 17 miles.
>   > 
>   > I followed behind my experienced 70+ y/o friend.  We started after
>   > everyone was away from the start line, walked and trotted.  We finished at
>   > 10 hours 54 minutes, for ride time of 9 hours 39 minutes...we still had an
>   > hour.  Vetted all A's, pulsed 48 at the final vet check 8 minutes after
>   > finishing.
>   > 
>   > On August 17, I finished the Eastern High Sierra Classic, 50-miler in 9
>   > hours 20 minutes...rode behind Trilby for the first 43 miles.

 I don't like to see posts like that one either; not because I think
that the individual cases overly stressed the horse(s) in question, but
because of the implication that other folks can do the same thing.  I'd
caution folks thinking that they to could do this that a) they better
know how to pace or have a very experienced mentor that is going to pace
them that slow; and b) pasture can have a lot of different meanings - If
a horse was on a large pasture in a semi-arid to arid climate with an
active herd it probably traveled quite a few miles/day.  1-2acres of
lush grass OTOH is great horse feed; but is not going to put that many
miles/week on a horse.  


Cheers,
Teresa

-- 
Teresa Van Hove
Associate Scientist GST/UCAR
vanhove@xxxxxxxx
---------------------------------

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