Re: 100 mile races

Susan F. Evans (suendavid@worldnet.att.net)
Fri, 17 Jan 1997 14:31:27 -0800

I have not met a show rider (unacquainted
> with endurance) who thinks that 25 or 30 miles is easy. Contrarily, they
> think we are NUTS to "waste perfectly good show horses racing them down the
> trail"> I daresay the cast majority would find it hard to stay in the saddle
> for that distance, and inaddition, would at the outset, at least, have no
> clue about getting through a vet check.

OK, this is just a goofy story I remembered from a few years ago. I
went to a ride and there was a good ol' boy on a big ol' quarter horse
and a big ol' stock saddle that spent the whole ride meeting telling all
of us he was gonna show us what a Real Horse could do and hell, back in
the old days cowboys rode 25, 50, 100 miles every day and then went
dancing that night. So the next day he and ol' Pal take off in a cloud
of dust, got to the first check and was told slow down or we pull your
saddle now. Well, he did and crept into the 25 mile point just under
the cutoff and oozed out of that saddle like he was gonna keel over and
die. Someone reminded him of his comments the night before about the
gazillions of times he'd ridden 25 miles and more and he replied, "Yeah,
but that's the first time I ever rode 25 MEASURED miles." To his
credit, he seemed like a pretty nice guy and was cracking up everyone at
the awards banquet.

Anyway, just a story.

Susan Evans