Limited Distance
LRiedel769@aol.com
Tue, 28 Jan 1997 08:11:25 -0500 (EST)
Dory Ann Jackson writes " I would like to point out that without LD there
would be no endurance riding as we know it. How many people do gou know that
have started their endurance careers on the 50s, 75's and 100s" I know of
hundreds--as a matter of fact everyone who started endurance riding more than
about 10 years ago. There were NO limited distance rides before then. I
certainly agree that the shorter distances are the ONLY way to start young
horses, bring back horses that have had problems, or for riders who for one
reason or another cannot or do not want to do the longer distances. As a
rider with a total of nearly 30,000 miles, about 15,000 of them are in
competitive trail riding. In UMECRA which sanctions about 50 rides per year
(the majority of rides in the Midwest), we did not sanction LD until last
year, but have had competitive rides since 1973 (they are NOT AT ALL like
NATRC). In fact many riders bring two horses for a weekend event and ride
both endurance (on Saturday) and competitive (on Sunday). I will be riding
my 22 year-old mare, who wins a lot, competitive again this year. She was
"downgraded" from endurance to competitive at the age of 20, but still thinks
she should be an endurance horse. I think LD has some advantages over
competitive--for one thing you can take MORE time. Most of our competitive
rides require riding 25 miles
in 4 hours, and you can take 6 for LD. There are other strictrer
requirements such as not leading your horse, use of water, no pit crews,
etc., and I personally find this more challenging than LD. Just to keep the
records straight from an old timer with 30 years of distance riding under my
belt.