If you enjoy being judged on your every move on
the trail and in camp, that excells in a structured enviroment full of
rules and regulations. Well then, competive trail may be your cup of
tea. As an ex-Naval Officer's wife..I had
plenty of that in the 'olden days'...No thanks!
Subject: [RC] [RC] Limited Distance vs
Competive Trail
<<One of your best learning opportunities is to
join ECTRA [www.ectra.org] and do the comptitive trail>>
That
depends. I've done both and in the short time I've been envolved in AERC
doing limited distance rides, I've learned MUCH more than I ever did
doing competitive trail!
If you enjoy being judged on your every
move on the trail and in camp, that excells in a structured enviroment
full of rules and regulations. Well then, competive trail may be your cup
of tea.
I myself do not care to be judged on whether or not
I "correctly" mounted my horse, or correctly navigated my horse over an
obstical, whether or not I can mount or dismount on the right, or if I have
all the sharp edges of my horse trailer wraped with vet wrap or
not. What I do care is that my horse is sound; before, during and after
the ride and gets a good vet scores.
In competitive trail you are
riding for the highest possible score to place in the ribbons. What I
like about AERC is their concept "To finish is to win" and to "ride your
own ride". There is so many different reasons to ride and levels to
compete.
When I started competitive trail I thought that I would
NEVER do endurance rides! They were way too scary to me - especially the
uncontrolled starts. But, once I did there was no turning back, I just fell
in love with the sport of endurance.
Don't get me wrong. Competitive
trail is a great sport, and I enjoyed it for many years. While endurance
is a cousin to competitive trail they are two different sports.
As
far as saying Limited Distance is "novice" rides. That is not exactly a
fair statement. There are many folks who ride limited distance with excess
of 1,000 miles under their belt. I wouldn't say they're
novices ;)
