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[RC] Pacing - k s swigartKathy Mayeda said: Last year I rode with someone who did intervals of walk and trot over the long flat stretches. This year I rode with someone who maintained long sustained trots. Then I rode with someone else who would walk, then canter to catch up. All three regularly top ten endurance rides of 50 to 100 miles. Since you know that all three of these riders regularly top ten using three different strategies; you have got to know that all three strategies CAN work. Beau and I discovered the beauty of maintaining a long sustained trot. We used to be the surge and rest type, which I think annoys some of the other riders. What do you think? What I think is you should ask your horse which strategy works best for him, since you know that any one of them COULD work well for some other horse. And he certainly would know better than any of us, we never having met the horse. If you don't have good enough communication with your horse to understand him when he tells you what works best for him, that might be one of the first things you want to work on :). I wouldn't worry too much about if/whether your choice of pacing annoys some of the other riders. If they don't like the fact that you are not pacing the horse the same way that they are pacing their horses, then they can match their pacing to yours. There is no reason that you should have to match your pacing to somebody else's horse. There is nothing inherently "better" about sustaining a constant pace, and no reason that those who don't maintain a constant pace should feel compelled to "yield" to the unstated pressure of those who do just because they choose to be annoyed by the fact that you aren't doing the same thing they are. You are, after all, riding your horse, not the other guy's horse. Do what is right for YOUR horse...and train it to go down the trail with you, not just any horse that happens to pass by (no matter how many times it may pass by). And if it annoys YOU to play leap frog with another horse, you have the option of riding faster to get away from it, or slowing down to get away from it. Me? I like to canter where the terrain is right for cantering, to trot where the terrain is right for trotting and to walk where the terrain is right for walking. But if you are asking about some of those long flat stretches across the Panamint Valley where the terrain is right for anything, then I am a proponent of the maxim, "A change is as good as a rest." How that applies to my choice of gait and/or pace for the horse that I am riding depends entirely upon which horse I am riding. If I were on a Paso Fino, I would do something completely different. :) kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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