Anyway...on the subject of East vs West. I'm not sure that the large number
of rides is really the main reason our Eastern horses don't rack up the
miles. I've been out West--those are BIG states--and accessibility can't be
the whole story. And after doing a little back-of-the-envelope tally, you'd
be surprised how many are accessible (maybe not 100's but more certainly
50's and a few multi-days). You could, if you really wanted to, do more
than 1000 miles, if you did all the offerings. Now that means sporadically
you'd be doing some of those rides week after week during the period from
April 1 thru' Thanksgiving.
What about the horses themselves? Are Western horses tougher? I know quite
a few people who use their horses to do ranch work...and the endurance is
the "fun" thing they do. Or is it having access to real mountains? Is it
lower humidity? Are we pampering our Eastern/SE pals?
Right now I'd give a King's ransom to be teleported to Ariz/CA....
Diane & Kevin @ Safe Haven (Odie still thinks this is really cool weather)