I was NOT offering this as advice; I offered
it as my experience in 1971 when I was a completely clueless
hoping-to-be-an-endurance-rider, and I took my QH out of winter pasture with no
conditioning at all and rode 25 miles in half the time allotted for a 50
miler. This was my first attempt, I was earnest but completely uneducated
about what it took to get me and a horse through a 50-mile trail. I did
not ride fast, either, as I had no conditioning and I was hurting by the time I
had reached 6 miles.
I have never said I recommended taking a
horse through 25 miles without proper conditioning....quite the opposite.
I just say it can be done, and that is why I don't support calling a 25 mile
ride an endurance ride.
I continue to be amazed and shocked at the
irresponsibility of this statement. Stating this as fact is as good as
endorsing the practice. Is that the message that should be sent
-- by people who profess to have the best interest of the horse at
heart?
Don't do an LD BC. Don't change the name or try
and call it endurance. Call it a draw on all sides of the LD argument, but
please people, do not give the uneducated and inexperienced the idea that any
person on any horse can do 25 miles. It's just plain all-around bad
advice.
> But it's true. > > Barbara >
> ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Kristen A Fisher"
<kskf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > To:
"Ridecamp" <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 7:26 PM > Subject: Re:
[RC] LD/Endurance > > > To me the biggest put-down about
riding 25 miles is that over and over, at > > rides and on Ridecamp,
people keep saying any person on any horse can do > it. > >
THAT belittles it. > >
