A variety of questions

[guest@endurance.net]

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO GUEST@ENDURANCE.NET!!!
You must post replies to the actual sender listed below.

From: The Stedmans 
Email: ristree@aol.com

Here we go!  My husband and I are hooked on distance riding after going to about 3 novice CTRs and a ECTRA clinic this summer.  He has an Arabian and got interested in the idea of doing this a couple of years ago, when his horse was about four.  I have a Belgian/TB cross I do dressage with, and tagged along for fun, but found it to be a lot more addictive than braiding and wearing white breeches for a two minute nerve-wracking dressage test.

So, needless to say, we've accumulated a few questions that I just know this group can help us with!  Thanks in advance for any information you can offer.

My husband has a custom John DiPietra endurance saddle which he really likes, BUT his horse has come back from a couple of the rides with a bit of a sore back (along each side of his spine generally), and has gotten a couple of girth sores.  The saddle came with a sheepskin pad and string girth, and we've fiddled with a breast collar, double elastic Cottage Craft type girth, etc., but the problem seems to be lingering.  We are considering trying a formula (vinegar/witch hazel/rubbing alcohol) which we heard toughens up the back and 
girth area a bit) and are willing to make a pad or girth change to try to  make the guy a bit more comfortable.  My husband's two point position  has gotten better over the summer, but the back got worse, if that helps at all.  (By the way, he wears spandex blend riding tights -- but not in hot pink -- so we got a kick out of those postings!!  I especially liked the suggestion that men buy them one size too small.  Did that come from a woman??)

I need help with getting my draft cross truly fit.  She's on the drafty side, but has the world's best, unflappable temperament, and has no trouble with competing the rides, soundness, soreness or hydration -- just with P and R recoveries.  Being such a big girl, I expect that, but am looking for hints. We did lots of LSD work, hill work, and then interval training (trot-canter-trot), but even by our last ride, she wasn't as fit as I'd hoped for.  Any ideas to get her really BUFF?  Thoughts about feeding fat?  She's a very easy keeper -- smells food and gains weight!  I'd almost decided to trade her in for an Arab or cross, and then she ended up winning our division in a NATRC ride this fall (two days/forty miles), and I'm enjoying her so much, it seems silly!

On some of the surveys, here's our answers:
Yup!  The husband will wear spandex, but only in black, and not in our 
neighborhood.  And he still seems a bit shy about it despite my whistling and catcalling "hey baby!"

I like big horses, with a draft cross, I'd be hard pressed to answer any other way.  She's about 16.3 hh and 1600#.  I can put her anywhere, and she'll stand next to ANYTHING!  The vet at our last ride watched me climb onto a guardrail, cluck to my mare a couple of times, and hop aboard.  (I'm 5'4").  She laughed and said "Now I see why you ride  that horse!!"  My husband's Arab is 15 hh in a brand new pair of shoes;  he does most of the getting on/off when one of us drops a baseball cap, crop, carrot, etc.

We especially like one track trails but find the roads nice on occasion, 
especially for chit-chatting with each other and other riders.  On windy  days, on single track trails, we just don't bother conversing, since we can never hear (and frequently misunderstand one another).

Maybe this is why our marriage works!  (We've stopped talking to one 
another...)

We are having a great time with this sport, and have to admit that I find you folks generally a lot more fun than the other riding disciplines I've been involved with!  By a landslide.

Happy Trails from Western New York!  The Stedmans