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[RC] out of control freak - Lynn White

Yep,

I have one of those.  Been riding her for eight seasons now.  I tried all sorts 
of strategies with her.  I tried waiting five minutes and I tried starting out 
with the front runners and then hanging out at the first hold until all the hot 
shoes were gone.  I don't recommend doing the latter, as it is NOT a good way 
to influence people and make Friends!  My mare is very competitive but a pain n 
the butt to condition.  She's basically an FEI competitor trapped in the body 
of a healthy trail horse.  I think my mare feeds off my nervousness and the 
stress between us gets exacerbated. 

What I do is try to park as far away from the starting line as I can and then 
leave ten minutes after the start time. I try to make sure my mare never sees 
or hears the commotion of the start and has no idea where everyone is.  Then we 
go.  I am much calmer too; and I tend to meet many new riders that way, 
provided they don't mind having to listen to my incessant yacking.  

If I was to hang out at the starting line I'd have people wanting to kill me.  
Nothing makes me more nervous than pedestrians around a bunch of excited horses 
at a race start. 

What I find interesting in all of this is that we tend to finish "races" with 
just about the same times as we did years ago.  It's just now we have more fun. 
I don't think we are getting any "slower" as much as other riders and horses 
are getting faster.

I also wear a sticker on my helmet that says, "I'm so far behind I think I'm 
first."    That's pretty much my motto until I retire my mare.

So IMO it all depends on what you want to accomplish at a ride.  If you want to 
be a front runner and start with all the commotion you really need to consider 
how to keep your horse calm at ride starts.  And you will have to work on ways 
to keep yourself from being so terrified.  I used to get so nervous at ride 
starts I'd just about want to vomit. That kind of took all the fun out of 
endurance for me...

Lynn




     

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