> Just curious. If any of you can remember long long ago doing
your > first > 50 on a horse thats done a 25 or 30 miler roughly what
percentage of > the > time is spent walking/trotting and
cantering?
When I did my first 50 (first ride also) I remember trying to make my horse
walk some to "rest". Boy was he ticked off. I was projecting my weakness on him.
I knew that if *I* jogged I needed intemittent walking to rest. The thing is,
horses are different. Their pasterns produce a springing effect our feet don't
have. It's like jogging on a trampoline. Nowadays I don't really plan
any walking into the pace. We do it going up long hills, or steep
hills, or down steep hills, but we don't walk for the sake of walking. I will
walk to keep his pulse or temperature down but that's just
hills.
7 did his first ride this spring in the 50 at Biltmore. The only
walking was up or down the hills. I've gotten pretty slow lately, not caring at
all where we place while getting him started and we still never walk any of the
good stuff. We did the odd canter here and there where he popped into one but
not enough to mention really. All horses are different though. Right now he
looks far more like a "completer" than a top ten prospect.
