Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

After accompanying some newbie riders from my Parelli club in LD, they were a little freaked out about other riders behaviour and thought the other riders were rude.  For some reason, I didn't see any behaviour that bothered me too much that I haven't seen at other endurance rides.  One was upset that another horse passed her at speed - but she's one that's prone to galloping past you up the hill while you're trotting, so I thought that was pretty funny.  They freaked out when they were passed while trotting and that they didn't walk while passing each other on the trail.  I did have to tell one to be careful about passing a big group of newbie riders - to make sure that you talk to them to let you know what you want to do.  But that's just common sense.

 

During the Tevis Fun ride, I was riding with two riders who never been on an LD or endurance ride and we encountered a group of riders on the single track.  They trotted slowly past us, and the gal in front of me stopped cold and put me and the other rider in a real narrow spot, making it hard for the others to maneauvor around us.  I told her to keep on going.  Then the two started talking about how "out-of-control" the other horses were and freaking out about it.  The horses were all being ridden with a loose rein and with good maintenance of gait - the horses didn't even raise their heads as the passed us.   They thought the other riders were rude.  I thought it was normal.  I think they were just really freaked out that they were even able to pass within such close quarters without doing the stop and let's talk about it routine.

 

My only response to whether or not these actions are rude:

 

1)  Look at what maintains the flow and dont' do anything to disrupt it... think of being in traffic... you can't slam on your brakes everytime a car approaches you in the other lane, or freak out that another horse passes you.

2)  Make sure that you have control of your own horse.  (If you don't want your horse to run away with you galloping up hill, then don't train your horse to gallop up hill.) 

3)  So-called rude behaviour is something to prepare for prior to the ride.  Play leapfrog at all speeds so that your horse doesn't freak when another horse passes them.

4)  You can't really control other peoples pace.  Just maintain your own.  Keep in your own buble and don't freak out about what the others are doing.

 

So this is a case of newbies/wannabes thinking that experienced endurance riders are rude.....

 

K.

On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 8:34 AM, Marlene Moss <marlene@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I had to chuckle at Angie's comments about the LD riders/newbies and the potential lack of trail etiquette!

 

At least with newbies it's easier to try to explain to them that they need to show some manners since most of them want to learn.  What's tough is when it's experienced endurance riders being rude!  We were at a 3 day ride this past weekend and rode for a while with a guy and 2 women where the guy had a little experience and the women were new to endurance (we rode the LD) and he was doing a fantastic job explaining to them how to behave at water crossings and other good etiquette behavior.

 

Halfway through the second day we had an extremely experienced endurance rider who normally rides 50's or more that was on the LD.  She picked up a newbie and did a terrible job setting an example.  Four of us were in front of them for most of the first loop and then at a perfect stream to drink from about 4 miles from camp, we had arranged our 4 horses so they could all drink.  And then this woman came blasting up and told us to get out of the way because they weren't going to drink and went galloping off.  None of our horses were able to continue drinking after that.  Then we were catching up a bit when they were going through a gate.  They saw us, and jumped back on without closing the gate and galloped off again.

 

I think I've seen the worst displays of manners from people who normally ride 50's when they are riding LD than any other circumstance.

Marlene

 

Marlene Moss

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