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Re: [RC] Being Forced to Do An LD - Jon . LindermanI have gotten lots of suggestions on how to try to get a horse to be more manageable on the trail at an event. Like others I am convinced they know the difference between a trail ride and an event, regardless of the distance. At the region 14 ride I tried to start dead last, but he raced forward too much. At AHAM I knew he'd want to race up the steep hill out of camp w/everyone so when the trail was "open" I hopped off his back, and walked him in hand until horses were out of sight. (This was a RC suggestion I got a year ago I think) I then rode him at the pace I thought appropriate for the conditions and his fitness & resigned myself that if the group came back to us fine, if not I wasn't going to ride too fast. Other times this year I have looked for a gap between the front runners and late leavers to find some "clean air" for him to start in. This has worked well too. Not perfect but w/some success. Tried that again at Spook run & it worked until we caught someone who had there hands full. We would trot by on the gravle road and then her horse would gallop past and she'd pull him up.......of course diagionally across the road so that I had to break our pace. After this happened for 15-20 minutes I stopped in a creek walked away and let her get away from us. No way I coulda tolerated another 20 miles of that on the white loop. Between 50's and LD's we had 12 starts this year & except for the S2S cool down hes behaved himself pretty well using these tricks. At that ride I mistakenly thought he'd be tired from the previous 100 miles he'd gone in the past few days & tried to go out w/the group. Wrong! Finally had to pull him up, turn him to the side, let a nice gap form and then ever so pateintly coax him to walk/prance/pace. It took about 15 minutes or so after pulling him up, but if I hadn't he'd of raced himself into a pull for sure. As it was he did settle down into a nice pace. Having both arab and sadlebred genes you never know what you are gonna get from him, but finding the calmest place for me w/my horse has helped. Key for me has also been my own patience and putting myself in a place where I exhibit patience to him. Jon =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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