Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Hey watch you you're calling an "old-timer!" ;-) .  I remember as a kid 
on the ranch we were on our horses just about every day - most of the 
time all day - in the summer. Sometimes when we were doing fun things 
like putting up hay - we'd hop on them about dusk and ride into the 
night - usually to the swimming hole so we could get the dirt, crud and 
hay off. During school they didn't get as much work but we still rode 
them when we could (it didn't bother us to ride a night) or else we'd 
get killed when we got on way to fresh horses.

Being kids we would ride pretty hard some times and just mosey along 
sometimes - whatever the mood struck either us or the horses. We didn't 
worry much about "oh my gosh what if the horse is not taking care of 
himself" - they just did and if there was something wrong we knew it. 
They munched on grass when we stopped and they drank when we came to 
water (or sometimes when we weren't paying attention, go out and roll 
saddle and all in the water to cool off).

Could any of those horses that we (me and the neighbor kids or my 
Grandfather's for that matter) gone out of the pasture and done an LD 
without much ado - you bet your bippy they could.  I suspect they could 
all have done a 50 without much ado.

Truman

Cindy Collins wrote:
> Ah, Ed and Truman...isn't it wonderful when we worthless old timers 
> agree on something :)
>
> BTW, my best newbie advice, which I realize most people cannot do, is 
> to start a horse on XP style "Duck" rides.  They are laid back.  The 
> starts are incredibly sane.  The horses that are there are mostly very 
> experienced and will "teach" your horse that it's no big deal, just 
> keep moving steadily down the trail.  They learn that you may get back 
> on them the next day, so they'd better drink, eat and sleep when 
> possible, etc.
>
> Of course, my REAL downfall as an endurance rider is that I never 
> start my horses on anything but 50 milers...:)  And, I started one 
> horse on a 100 (OMG)!  Although I no longer own her, she, btw, has 
> over 1900 miles, competed for about 8 years and is a healthy, loved 
> horse.  Cindy
>
> On May 29, 2008, at 9:14 AM, Truman Prevatt wrote:


--

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what 
we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true." Bertrand 
Russell


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