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[RC] 100 Mile One Day Rides - Joe LongAfter too long a hiatus, I finally have a 100 mile horse again and got to ride a 100-mile one-day ride again. I wondered if I would still enjoy it as much as I had in the past, and the answer to that is a big YES!!!!!!! Last weekend's wonderful experience reminded me again of the special place the 100-mile one-day ride has in our sport. It is the pinnacle, the test of horse and rider that cannot be matched by shorter distances, even multi-days. It has a mystique all its own (along with being the finest test of endurance of horse and rider and of the teamwork of horse and rider). You will never appreciate your horse quite so much as you do at the end of a 100 mile ride. If we ever lost the 100-mile one-day rides, our sport would never be the same, and be much, much poorer for it. I don't believe that will happen, though. Sure, a majority of riders may never make the attempt, and a majority of those that do may do it only once, to prove themselves. But there will always be horses and riders who rise to the greatest experience of all, and who will come back to it again and again. I don't want to offend anyone, but I appreciated again after the Big Horn that a fifty-mile ride is, in significant ways, really only "half a ride." That is not intended to put them down, they are good rides in their own way, and I hope to keep riding 50's for many years yet. But, I pray to God, please allow me to go on riding one hundred miles with my partner. There is nothing closer to heaven on this earth. -- Joe Long jlong@xxxxxxxx http://www.rnbw.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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