I just want to add a little bit to the conversation!I would also probably be considered a
newbie.I’ve been doing
distance riding for 4 years now. I started with CTR because I was a little
scared of my horse. She’d
done endurance and had different opinions than me as to our speed.If she wasn’t a difficult horse to
ride, I might have embraced that and ridden too fast for our conditioning level.
I learned a lot from CTR, but I
think now I am learning more about how to care for my horse rather than worrying
about points.
Anyhow, I’ve been doing more “endurance”
rides (starting with LD) and preferring multidays
when I can get to them and now moving into 50’s.While no one would think I’m a
speed demon, we have been going faster and getting into the idea of
competition. I really would rather
not know I am 9th (and want to stay there) or 11th (and
just have to pass that next rider), but if I do know, I have been embarrassed
at the competitive feeling that I couldn’t control.
At a ride last summer, there were very few riders entered –
less than 10 for the 50.So we knew
we could go whatever speed we wanted and still top 10.One of the vets in the mountain region
is very concerned about gut sounds and she really encouraged us to let our
horses eat on the trail.I think
this was one of my greatest learning experiences.To have absolutely no reason to hurry
and learn how we should really be controlling our ride without competition.
Now, this doesn’t mean we just poked along. We pretty much trotted 8-12mph everywhere
the terrain allowed.But we gave
the horses several good long eating breaks. Of course they did forget they were in a
ride since everyone else long passed us!
But the reward was the vet saying that she wished all the
other horses looked as good as ours at the end of a 50 and that they had the
best gut sounds.I hope to take
this “plan” to all future rides.
So my lesson from this is that you don’t have to just
walk to “go slow”.You
can move at a comfortable pace.But
give the horse breaks throughout the ride and let them maintain their digestive
system. It also calms their
minds.And I am not encouraging
galloping your horse flat out and then forcing them to stop and think they’re
going to eat and then “catch up”.Just do what you’d do on a long
conditioning ride.
I think that time on trail can also be detrimental if you
are not letting them eat sufficiently, so forcing a newbie to walk for 50 miles
without the education that encouraging the horse to eat on the trail might not
be enough of an education.
Just my thoughts!
Marlene
PS - And please, if you see me on the trail – don’t
tell me what position I’m in!
