Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I'm really glad you posted, especially this:

> From: BCsiren@xxxxxxx
> Again, I speak for myself...but I "didn't know what I didn't know"...

I cringe inside when people show up at their first ride and say they've been 
training their horse x number of months/years to prepare, yet they haven't 
ever been to a ride. They have the very best of intentions, but it really is 
hard to truly prepare for something you haven't seen or experienced. Most of 
the time everything works out just fine. They see right away what their 
horse can do and ride accordingly. Other times they come in thinking they 
are prepared to race right out of the box, which gives ride management and 
other experienced riders nervous fits and causes all sorts of 
miscommunications and bad feelings on both sides. Sometimes they really ARE 
that ready but end up feeling unwelcomed, which is sad. A very few try to do 
too much and the horse gets the bad end of the deal and enforces the 
negative stereotypes.
No matter what distance a newbie decides to start in, it helps a LOT if they 
get to know the riders, managers, and ride philosophy in their ride area 
first. It IS different in different places. Helping at rides can do this. If 
you have to haul a really long way though, I think it's better to enter an 
LD or two and just scope things out and get to know people instead of 
waiting another year to get "ready" for a 50.

Nancy Mitts



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