RE: LD: try now or wait?

["Steph Teeter" <step@fsr.com>]

Karen - what are his heart rates - recoveries - like?
It's pretty hard to generalize - but if your horse
can handle your 10 mile rides with no stress he's probably
ready for a 25, especially if you plan to take the whole
6 hours. And you can always pull him in the middle if
he's having a hard time. You'll learn an awful lot just
by trying.

Steph

-----Original Message-----
From: KarenBrat1@aol.com [mailto:KarenBrat1@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, May 14, 1999 8:12 PM
To: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC: LD: try now or wait?


I have a 7-yr-old Arab gelding who was just started under saddle a year ago.
He did about 400 miles last summer/fall of trail riding and was in very hard
muscular condition (felt like I was patting a brick wall :-)  I've only been
riding him about a month this year, 3-4 times a week, 5-10 miles a ride.
Sometimes flat, sometimes mountain.

Question:  I plan to go to KKS Windsong on Memorial weekend (in two weeks)
to
volunteer Saturday.  Should I try doing the 25 LD on Sunday if I take the
maximum time?  Or would I be better off waiting til the next nearby ride at
the end of summer (Lost Wheelbarrow Mine), when he'll have had a lot more
conditioning?  I'm a complete newbie and have never been to an AERC ride
before, just done a lot of fun trail riding.

Thanks!

Karen "Ready" Bratcher and Bender the Little Big Horse



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