> Besides that, to make
it truly fair, the weight of the horse in
> proportion to the rider
would have to be used to be fair.
> A heavyweight on an
1100 lb. mount is better off than me on my 14.1
> hand pony sized guy who
weighs 750 !
You would think this would
be true. I am 6-1 and my horse usually carries around 225 lb. I am
62 and have done endurance since I was 18. One of the best horses I have
ever had was a little Arab mare who was 13-3 hands and weighed 700lb. The
proportion of my weight to hers was way out of whack, but she carried me with
ease on 50’s, out performing my 15+ hand horses.
There are so many factors
that go into performance on an endurance ride; the natural athletic ability of the
horse and rider, training, feed, how each individual is feeling on that day,
temperature, horsemanship skills of the rider, mental stability under pressure
(for both horse and rider), weight carried, and the list goes on and on.
Why single out weight for special consideration. I have seen 100’s
where the top five riders were all heavy weights. After 44 years of endurance
riding my gut feeling is that factors other than weight carried have the most influence
how well you do.
The thing that made
endurance so attractive to me was that it was a sport where your performance
was what counted. When you finished a ride it was a real accomplishment,
not just someone’s opinion of your performance. I would like to see
AERC get back to its roots.
