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[RC] new riders/mentors - Jonni Jewellthe RM enacted a mandatory 1 hour hold time, leaving 5 hours to complete 25 miles (through the TX Hill Country = not flat fast course) **less** times for meeting criteria, so essentially 4.5 hours of ride time <<< A one hour hold is not uncommon for a 25 mile ride...even at rides out in California where there are LONG climbs, and tough mountains.(Bandera IS flat compared to some rides in other regions, that allow the same time frame) Not sure how you are figuring 4.5 hours of ride time. Your horse recovering and meeting criteria is PART of you ride time. Some horses recover quickly, some take more time. This is what determines the fitness of the animal. I rode the 50 miler, and the longest it took my horse to recover was about 4 min. The other times I went straight from the trail, to the pulse check, and he was down.We were keeping about a 5 to 5.5 mph pace, planning on using most of the day to finish. (which we did!) So, take out the 1 hour hold from the 6 hours to finish, and you have an average pace to keep of 5 mph for your 25 miles. You have to figure the recovery time, your water stops, tinkle breaks etc. into that pace. The trail had plenty of places to move along at a nice trot or canter, to make up time for the short sections of rocks. They warned us that we needed to move out when the trail was good, as there were sections that would be slow going. This is all part of endurance riding. The more rides you get to, the better you will get at figuring pace etc. of your horse. But there were no mile markers on the trail (is this common?)<<< The LBJ Grasslands (where I am guessing you might ride some) is one of the few places that has permanent mile markers on the trails. If you want to know your mileage, I would suggest you might want to buy one of the Timex speed / distance watches. You can get fairly accurate mileage, and also know what your speed, or even average speed for the day is. and we had a reduced amount of time to complete due to the extra long hold.<<< Again, that really is not an "extra long" hold. Ask yourself how much time you had in that hour to feed and care for your horse, check tack, feed yourself if needed, change any clothes due to the temperature changing etc. etc. AND, give your horse time to just rest a little. I bet that hour was up before you knew it. Jonni (No. 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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