RE: [RC] LD BC?? - Stewart, CarrieWhen I bought my Arabian gelding, my thoughts were to ride endurance with him. I want him to be my partner for a long, long time so we have been working slowly building him up and building his confidence level. I started him under saddle last Fall as a 3 year old. I never rode him outside of my round pen. I never rode him longer then 20 mins. We worked on bending, stopping and spooking in place. I banged the saddle, my helmet, the rails on the round pen, walking over tarps and a sundry of other obstacles. He is 4 now and a far cry from the bug eyed 3 year old I started. He is still spooky at new things but the trust and maturity are coming. We travel outside the round pen now. He is traffic safe, trash along side of the road safe and we are working on puddle safe. :o) We haven't come across any ATV's when I have been mounted yet but they travel near the pasture so at least he has been exposed. We only travel about 1-2 miles, 3 times a week, at the most and mostly at the walk. We trot about 100 meters stretches and we NEVER, NEVER canter. I feel really good about his progress and I hope to try a LD on him as a late 4 year old IF he is ready. These will be for the experience of new things like being around a bunch of new horses and new places. I come from the NE and rode ECTRA for a while. If the South Central region had CTR's that were like the ECTRA rides, we would be competing there first but I like the freedom of Endurance better and the LD's, in my mind, are a perfect foundation to put on a young horse. As far as people racing, they will find out that racing a young horse won't keep him around very long but don't penalized those of us who are responsible enough to know better. Carrie S. and Hush Carthage, Texas =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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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