I started in pen 2 and quite frankly it doesn't matter where in the pack you start. If you want to get up front you have plenty of opportunity to do so as the day goes on. I trotted everywhere I could and walked when it dictated I do so. I finished in 40th place and that included taking a 35 min break (I was suffering with nausea from the altitude)
If you use your head and have a sound fit horse you can make the cut offs without a lot of difficulty.
I wrote my ride story but it came out on 5 pages!! I'm busy editing it and hopefully I'll get it down to 2 pages.
Marina
Diane,
Everybody started at 5:15. In fact, they were all lined up and ready to go minutes before then, after more than half an hour of warm up Within the two pens, riders could start wherever they wanted. Riders chose their own pens. If a person was unhappy with the pen he was assigned (and in most cases self-selected), he could appeal to ride management.
