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Re: [RC] BSF finisher & Jody's post - Mary Howell

One more BSF 100 finisher deserves a lot of credit - we saw Mary Ferris go
by in a truck as we were packing up early Sunday morning. She told us she
rode the last miles alone and had just finished at 5:18 am. To me, hanging
in there through all those dark hours with no company but your horse takes
true grit...harder than a "fast" 100 for sure! Lynn and Ruth Ann came in
around 11:30pm, the only 2 finishers to get in before midnight.

Hey Jody: my horse was also a bit girthy towards the end of the ride so I
switched girths to try to help him. Besides Don's suggestion, another way to
find out if you ride crooked is to try a treeless saddle. About 5 years ago
when I switched to an Ansur, for the the first several weeks my saddle kept
shifting to the right because I was propping weight in my one hip and there
was no tree to compensate...eventually, I learned to ride straighter and the
shifting stopped. A dividend is that I now feel better & am less likely to
have knee/back soreness towards the end of 100s.

A couple other things that might help are using a mounting block so you can
ride with a looser girth and/or mounting from the off side if you have to
mount on trail. Several years back, I rode a friend's horse in a 100 and got
BC even though the horse had a bad girth gall from a training ride the week
before using a different saddle/girth than he was used to. The ride was not
hilly, so we set the girth so loose you could almost see daylight & took our
time going around sharp turns.

I know not everyone is up for getting off and walking beside their horse on
long and/or steep hills, but that helps me ride better too by getting the
stiffness out of my knees and legs. Good luck and see you at JDs!



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