Re: Can't condition for a 50?

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From: Dave Bennett 
Email: benamil@juno.com

I guess that is what I meant about just starting a 50 and see how it
would go. 
 The longer of the training rides we do at home are over 20 miles so the
25's we
 did were no big challenge to my horse.  The short training rides are 5
-7 miles
and done more often.   I admit that the first 12 miles of the
 first 25 on my green horse was a lot of work.  He thought it was
absolutely
 terrible for all those horses to go galloping off and leaving us while
we just
 continued at a trot!  But, I insisted that we would ride our own ride
and it got
 better fast.   The important thing to me was that my horse learned
something
 about what happens at rides, vet checks, camping with many other horses
 around, and so on.  So, they were valuable and served their purpose.
 
For me, they were the second and third 25-mile rides I had done - ever.
My
 other endurance horse started his career doing slow 50's.  At the end
of these
 25's I found myself thinking "Is that all there is?"  I felt that I
really had not
 finished my ride day.  

I think that what most new riders and their horses do not know is how to
pace
 at a ride.  It takes some experience - gained in some way - to learn
that one
 cannot blow it out at the start of a 50 and expect to finish.  I am not
at all sure
 that the fast 25's that I see in my area provide the opportunity to
learn this,
 though.  They just go too fast and it is too easy for one to get caught
up in the
 crowd.  One help to me in riding my own ride when things start getting
a little
 crazy is to say to myself "IF".   That reminds me of Rudyard Kipling's
poem
 that starts,

"If you can keep your head when all others about you are losing
theirs..."

Dave Bennett
Chickamauga, Georgia
benamil@juno.com 


Deanne said>
>Walked Gabe out to loosen him up........after he had just done 25 MILES! 
>Then the
>50's came in for the lunch stop and Gabe went bannanas trying to follow.
>Couldn't
>keep him from going in circles around me on the lead.
>
>Welp.......that's all I needed to convince me that the next ride was
>gonna be a
>50.  (two beers later....friends come in)
>
>It really doesn't take any more preparation for a 50. You need to pack
>the same
>stuff......take the same amount of time off.....drive the same
>distance.......you
>just get to ride for a little longer!  It's great!  Go for it!
>