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Re: [RC] Western States 50 Accident - Lif StrandAt 10:45 AM 7/5/2004, Mary Abbott wrote:Someone wrote this in an email earlier today: I wrote the quoted thing. It wasn't a judgement, merely a comment, combined with a typo: Replace "should" with "could" and ti actually makes more sense. There are very few places you can pass another horse, and it takes a bit of planning and working together to do so--such as the person ahead finding a spot at a switchback. Even that can be a bit hairy. I am sure that the rider would've pulled over if she could have, but I doubt it was a possibility. Like I said, I wasn't there, but I do know the trail... I've ridden that trail somewhat over 15 times - some parts more - and have written a trail guide about it (before WSTF put out their own trail guide), so I'm pretty familiar with it, too. As I commented already in another post, sometimes we *forget* we can pull over and let the tailgater pass. That's the first step. Secondly, I have pulled over and passed in places on that trail that were far from switchbacks. It can be done! When pulling off the trail to be passed, you choose the uphill side of the trail and let the horse(s) go by. I've done it on places you wouldn't believe a horse could even get off the trail. It's one more of those things you practice at home, by yourself and with your conditioning friends. At home I don't only ride on trails, I ride off them, next to them, up and down across them, etc. and lots of times I just go cross country, blazing my own trails. It gets me in trouble sometimes, it is scary, and it requires a willingness to always push the envelope, but when I get to a race there's probably not going to be anything there me and my horse haven't already seen - even if we've never seen that particular trail. Years ago Tom Ivers proposed that if you are going to put your horse in a track race, your training/conditioning should cover much worse situations, much harder situations than what you will encounter on the track. For flat track racing he proposed conditioning at longer distances, varying speed, varying terrain (off of tracks!), even teaching the flat track horse to jump. For endurance you do the same: Condition at long distances, varying speeds, varying terrain, teach your horse to jump, how to calmly step over obstacles (ride campers who have been around know my story about my stallion who *would not* step over a knee high pipe on the Swanton Pacific - some of you will recall that it was on the WS50 that I discovered this problem, when Nas refused to step over a knee high sapling that had fallen over the trail.), how to ford rivers, cross bridges, pass through cow herds, along roads that have speeding cars, etc. etc. Training for everything you can think of, and harder and longer, is an approach I fully believe in. It's an "old fashioned" concept, but I still think it's a good one to incorporate into a conditioning program. Sure, there will be times when you just can't pull off the trail and be passed, but if that's the case, make it be not because *you* can't (because you and your horse haven't practiced it), but because no one could. ________________________________
Lif Strand fasterhorses.com
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