Re: [RC] LD- oh @@##! I am morphing into a "real" endurance rider - Chrystal** Sorry this somehow turned out to be really long- only read if it is raining and miserable out , otherwise go ride!** :-) Having only read 4 or 5 of the LD posts I may not be up to speed on the whole conversation ( but am pretty sure I only missed a lot of rhetorical, circular arguments, kinda reminds me of our endurance club meetings. :-) ) however found to my HORROR that I am thinking " well 25 isn't endurance, that's just crazy...." Here is the problem I PROMISED myself when I started long distance riding 3 years ago ( I learned in the first two months that I was a "long distance rider" and couldn't call myself an endurance rider until I had done 50 miles ;-)) that I would never become one of "those" endurance riders who fought to keep 12 mile rides out of our club, who went on and on and on.................about endurance and the importance of protecting our sport and the integrity of it ( i.e. 12 or 25 miles ISN"T endurance!) anyway- you get the idea- I was always going to remember what is was like to start out and how hard 25 miles is to do when you haven't been doing it for years hmmmmmmmmm..........well, I do remember how hard it was and how cool I thought I was that I could ride 25 miles in one day ( anyone who wants to impress people should just tell their vet, dressage coach, local feed store employee etc... trust me they will be suitably impressed :-) ) And you know what???? I was cool, and tough and 25 miles IS something to be really proud of- however my mare and I jumped into 50's this year- BIG difference I was sooooo excited after our first 50 that I could FINALLY call myself an endurance rider- our training rides are often 25 miles at home now- they used to be 10- we can canter for 5 and a half hours and feel GOOD at the end of it, there really is a difference. That doesn't mean everyone has to do 50 or a 100 ( my goal for the end of next year , I am soo hooked:-)) but LD's are LD's -CTR's are CTR's and endurance is endurance- if I wanted to call myself a jumper I would actually have to go jump something (any jump taken to date has been with my eyes closed and more of an accident than a planned thing :-) I guess I could call myself an accidental jumper!!!:-)) Figure out what you want to be and go do it!:-) And have FUN with your horse because that really is what it is all about. :-) ( I have to share a funny story about one of my endurance rides, it was our 3rd ride this season ( and our 3rd 50 ever after training for 3 years to get in proper shape :-)yes I am one of those people ) my mare and I had come in dead last on purpose at the first two rides as I didn't want to push her too hard, anyway by the third ride she had decided that she knew better than me what to do and just took off, and didn't stop until the end which I found out to my incredible surprise put us 8th out of 21 starters!! Anyway I was sooo excited that we had top tenned as I hadn't planned on doing that until the end of next year :-) I was at a pony club meeting the next night with my daughter and gushing to my friends ( the parents) about how great my mare is, I was soo proud of her and that she had done the 50 miles in 5 hours and 45 minutes and just rambling on in general about how incredible the whole experience had been.Anyway one of the girls who had been listening pipes up and says" it took you almost 6 hours to ride 50 miles?" I answered in the affirmative and she said " what did you do,walk the whole time??" Talk about taking the wind out of my sails, I realized that they really had no idea as to what I did .............although it helped a bit when I translated the miles into km's ( 80 km, we are in Ontario so miles really throw the kids) she thought that definitely sounded a bit farther but still didn't understand why it would take me so long. :-):-)
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