Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

on 12/10/03 1:16 PM, Alison Farrin at Alison@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Not to mention that "I" will gladly trade going slow for 4 rides if it saves
> some other horse's life.
I looked at my ride history today and noticed that my first two rides were
completed in 9 hours each. 50th and 54th place. I had some saddle issues on
one ride, and rose for miles with one stirrup before baling twine and duck
tape kind of saved the day. At that point we were riding with the drag
rider, and I was aware of how much experience she had, so my partner and I
elected to stay with her and pick her brain and observe the whole ride. It
was my second ride.  My third ride had no mishaps and I finished 34th in 7
hours. I got to ride behind the great Jackie B.. on some of that and again
watched and observed.  My fourth 50 (fourth ride) I was set for a much
faster completion when I became airborne and  had a bad meeting with a slate
mountain.  We were ready to move up a bit.  I chose to start with 50's,
chose fairly difficult rides, and went slow.
I think most new rides similarly pace themselves. I went to a clinic in
Ramona, read every book on endurance I could get my hands on, read ridecamp
for years while I did LSD on my mare. And I asked a lot of questions. I also
met some experienced and good friends that I tried to listen to.
I would not have wanted to be put in a large group, and have to pace with
many other horses. My mare, whom I know very well would fight me and be
miserable the entire time.  Some new riders do things the right way, and
should not be made to essentially  do NATRC or CTR to start endurance. To be
honest I probably would have not wanted to pursue the sport because I can
tell you that my first three rides with this newbie group would have taken
the life out of my mare and I and caused many more problems than not. I
picked this sport because my horse and I love the challenge of the trail,
the bonding we get putting in miles and frankly because we both love to
gallop down a gorgeous trail and feel the wind in our hair when WE want to.
Not every new rider fits into the cookie cutter. I know there have to be
others who know their horse, their research, and seek out experienced riders
and managers to learn from and are ready for more than a led and paced trail
ride. The happiest times on the trail is our the time we have alone in the
morning stillness, and under a sky of blue, but alone.
I much prefer having a mentor list to partner with a newbie list at rides,
done voluntarily. Shoot, it is even hard to partner and stay with someone an
entire ride. Sometimes circumstances just come up. It just seems so hard to
enforce this 3 ride pacing thing. RM having to check histories, etc. Why not
just have a list at each ride of experienced mentors willing to partner with
willing newbies? I know I would have signed up to partner with someone on my
first rides, but not a big group.
Tiffany
Tiffany


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