Re: Judging how to "move up a level"...

[Maggie Mieske <mmieske@netonecom.net>]

I was happy with Jonathan's performance on the 50 but I felt my own
inadequacies impeded him... I have diabetes which I am just learning to
manage as it is (found out about the same time I started doing the rides this
year) so in OUR best interests, until I can learn to better manage the
exercise and my body's responses to it and the food I put in my mouth, I felt
we needed to do some more 25s...Jonathan will probably be ready for the 50s
before I am because he is that kind of horse...I am unfit (or not as fit as I
would like to be!) and being a team effort I feel that's our best course of
action.  Yeah, I could let my daughter ride him and he could go on and do
better than with me...but that's not the point, is it?
As far as letting Jonathan pick the speed and poking him at times... by that
I MEANT, I don't run him pell mell full speed... he trots when he wants to
trot, walks when he wants to walk and if he feels like loping, we lope.
Sometimes he gets to sight seeing and THAT has nothing to do with being
fatigued and so I get him to speed up which usually wakes him up to what we
are doing (this is usually when there are no other horses around and he
figures, what the heck?).  Ok, what else do I need to CLARIFY?
Apparently you have it made if the 25 LD is "hardly any work at all".  I am
sure there are plenty of newbies who would also be offended by that.  That's
good for you but for some of us, maybe it comes a little harder and takes a
little more time.  That sounds a little snobbish to me.  In fact, a lot of
these posts are getting to be too personal and much less educational... I
think if 25 LD is what I or anybody else wants to do for whatever their goal
or reasoning, it is THEIR business... THEY pay the entry, member or not and
THEY ride THEIR horse.  When they post a query for help from you, then go for
it... that is what I thought this forum was for.  Ridecamp has helped me alot
since I subscribed but I have also read a lot of garbage!  Where does some of
this stuff come from???? (Please don't answer that question!).
Maggie