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[RC] [RC] CTR'S are too fast. - Deanna German

Rene wrote:

i have found that with the ctr's i spend the whole ride "trot, trot, trot,
canter, what time is it?, pant, pant, catch breath, what time is it? trot,
trot, are we there yet? but I'm going so fast. i need to walk. can we walk?")
i spend the whole ride looking at the footing so i can trot as much as
possible, haul some butt on the dirt roads cause I walked too much in the
woods, then keep trotting. OK, my horse is a slow poke.


So, have you figured out how many mph you were going?

And, yes, it is really advantageous to not have a horse that's a slow-poke
walker. The same works pretty well for endurance too. :-)))




ctr's almost encourage you to haul ass.


The idea is to have the horses complete the course in as much of the same
amount of time as possible and then judge their condition. The more fit the
horse, the better your riding and horsemanship, the more chance you have to
avoid those point deductions! If you feel like you're hauling ass, you might
need to evaluate your conditioning program in a way that allows you to
figure out, for example, what is a 7 mph speed over a rolling 15 mile
course. What is it over single-track, rocky hills. For me, it's more of a
feel thing. And when I first started doing a 7 mph speed, it felt like I was
hauling ass too, particularly when the terrain was challenging!

You aren't DQ'd for coming in late (as long as it's not unreasonable), so I
don't understand why you feel encouraged to go faster than you would like.
It's not intended to be a judged pleasure ride. (Although some are in danger
of becoming judged pleasure rides, they're so slow...)




i ride kind of slow and barely make
the time cut off's, and came in 10 min. late on one ride cause i tried
desperately to avoid trotting on the tons of pavement on the ride. (tons to me
anyway) then the long wait for hands on.(" ma'am your horse has a scratch;30
million points off.")


As long as you do right by your horse, and you did, who cares about late
time deductions? :-))))

CTR forces you to learn to pace, that's for sure. By that I mean you have to
know in your head exactly what mileage your horse covers over all sorts of
terrain and combination of gaits. It also forces you to be anal about where
you let your horse move out and where you take it slow so as to not get
those dreaded deductions. But all those things are good things to know for
endurance too.

When CTR and LD are offered together, sometimes it is the better choice to
do LD where you get 6 hours to complete. The CTR offered on that day might
be asking for a 4 1/2 hour completion for 25 miles. I can't wait to see what
the upcoming AHA Nat'l CTR down in Florida asks of its competitors since I
think that's a two-day 80.

I understand liking LD better -- when you're done, you're done. *I* like LD
better than most CTRs, but it messed with my horse's brain. CTR is better
for her brain.

CTR is a game and it's one that can be fun to play or it can drive a person
nuts. But I personally am glad it's here. :-))) CTR taught me a lot I
wouldn't have learned any other way.

Take care!

Deanna


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