[RC] 25's too short? - my observation - Karen Williams
I've been "aware" of endurance riding for a long time --
I've worked a few rides, some of them big rides and I often went to rides to
meet friends and just hang out, but until two years ago I had never actually
done one. I've ridden horses most of my life and am very comfortable out
on the trail by myself. At my first real endurance ride, it wasn't
the 25-mile distance that was unnerving -- it was remembering what to do when
you got to the vet checks. It took me a few rides to get comfortable with
getting into the check, finding my card, remembering where to take my card,
taking care of the horse and watching the time. All that exhausted me
more than riding the horse! Doing a few 25's really helped me get a
feel for things without being overwhelmed.
Now that I'm an "old hand," I find that I really like
the 50-mile rides, but if a ride is particularly rough or if its a new ride for
me, I will drop back down to a shorter distance. My question is ..... is
it better to start a 50 that you likely won't be able to finish or drop
back and do a 25 you are pretty sure to complete.
Everyone's
comments on the last couple of days regarding 25's being too short to
really teach a horse how to take care of himself are very interesting, but
I feel like as a newbie, I would be in a catch-22 - I need the LD for my
conditioning, but then my horse will have a little harder time adjusting
when we move to the 50's and 100's. Maybe as a newcomer, I
should just stick to the shorter rides, as they're a good bit safer (i.e.
the idea of 25 is less scary than 50 to me).
If you do 20 mile training rides (4 hrs at 5 MPH) a few
times a month, you would not need the LDs for conditioning. I did
18-25 mile training rides regularly before my first 50....still was pretty
darn sore when I got off my horse and could hardly walk the next couple of
days. Other than that, it was great!
