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Re: [RC] competition vs. trail rides - sharp pennyGary, Hi! I'm a bit behind on reading RC..just came back from doing two 50's at Llano Estacado in Amarillo, Tx. I liked your post and agree with your point. However you don't have to be a "hot shoe" to top ten a ride. And most of the consistant top tenners I've seen thoughout my limited 2 years of doing endurance rides end up with happy healthy horses. Even a relatively new person to the sport can top ten without even intending to at the beginning of the ride. My first top ten was ridden with a mentor (who often top tenned). We started at the back of the pack and both of us wanted just a completion. I had a horse with a previous sore back and his horse had hoof problems at previous rides. The trail dictated our speed..as the trail dried out our speed increased. In the end we top tenned and had happy healthy horses. My current top ten as at the ride this weekend. I started 15 mins behind everyone for *mind training* reasons, rode the ride solo and at a pace that was consistant with MY horses' training. Ended up 7th that day and 8th overall for the two days. Again, not planning on top tenning just riding my horse within his capabilities on that day over that trail (something learned from a mentor) My point being you can be competitive in endurance and not race or be a "hot shoe" IMO the well known "hot shoes" are just so high profile that when they have the occasional "s@*t happens" everyone hears of it and because they consistantly top ten everyone assumes it is because of speed. Alot of times it just ain't so... when you look at the law of averages it dosn't surprise me when they have the horse that is compromised considering the amount of competition miles they have under their belts. I also don't really consider these people "hot shoes" as they are riding at the speed they and their horses have trained for. Everyone has an occasional error in judgement..theirs are glareingly visible. The people I think of as "hot shoes" are the relatively new to the sport (less than 5 years competeing) people that try to run with the high profile people on horses that aren't ready for this level of intensity. I suspect when the numbers are crunched there will be more compromised horses found at the lower profile rides than the top elite rides. AGAIN JMO Penny --- Gary Daniels <gdaniels@xxxxxxx> wrote: After reading some of the e-mails on ride-camp, one should almost be afraid to ATTEMPT to be competitive at the next endurance ride, or else one may be considered "irresponsible" or not taking care of their horse........ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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