ridecamp@endurance.net: Race or Not

Race or Not

Wendy Milner (wendy@wendy.cnd.hp.com)
Wed, 11 Jun 1997 10:22:26 MDT

Bob Morris said:
>All I see on this forum is what vet score did my horse get? Trauma if it is
>not all "A's" Come on people get real you are working with an animal, a
>horse, not a fragile butterfly. An animal many times tougher than most of
>you.

Not every one wants to race for the finish line. Not every one or
every horse can be first. On the ride coming up this weekend, I know
that I will not be first, I will not try to be first, and I might not
even come close to top ten. Eventually I'll get Drake to the point
where he can easily do a 50 and then I'll try for top ten. Right
now, I plan to ride a bit conservatively. My goal for this weekend's
ride is to finish, and to finish with good scores.

We are not worried about horses being fragile butterflies. Rather,
the A's indicate that we have given the proper training to our horses
and ridden the ride well.

On the topic of 25 mile "races". Even if the first to finish is
the horse who comes into criteria first, it is a flat out race.
I wasn't quite ready for the 50 a month ago so opted for the 25.
I took Drake out at a canter, and we cantered the entire way.
The heart rate monitor said he was not working hard, and he said
he wanted to go faster. Another rider kept pace with me. It
was a race. Drake's heart rate came down very quickly at the
finish, minutes ahead of the other rider's horse. So we "won".
I would much perfer to have best conditioned type of scoring
for ranking the 25 mile rides.

--
Wendy


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  Wendy Milner                     HPDesk:   wendy_milner@hp4000
  Hewlett-Packard Company          e-mail:   wendy@fc.hp.com
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