Do I encourage her to go on?

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Christian Love clove@lincpfp.com
I just returned from the Big South Fork Multi-day Endurance ride last weekend.  Which, by the way, was an absolutely wonderful, beautiful, well managed ride that I hope continues year after year.

Althea and I have been competing in 50 milers and consistently doing well (top ten in ever race).  But, I have decided to slow down and start doing 2 day and eventually 1 day 100s.  BSF was our first 2 day 100.  We did very well the first day (Friday) and finished the easier trail in over 6 hours (which is what I was shooting for).

The second day was not very good.  We started 30 minutes after everyone else because I did not want to have to fight her the whole way.  Then the front runners went the wrong way and soon caught us.  They came flying by us, so I tried to fight for a while, but then two wonderful more experienced ladies came along and encoraged me to join them, so I did.  Everything was going well until we stopped at a watering hole.  This was the beginning of my mistakes (besides leaving 30 minutes late vs. 10 minutes).  Their horses were thirsty because at this point had done 5 more miles than we had.  Althea would not calm down while they stopped and drank, so I allowed Althea to go on ahead (of course after asking permission to leave).  BIG MISTAKE!

I was enjoying a nice trot and missed a turn.  Went about 2-3 miles out of the way and came upon a great guy on an Appaloosa who had done the same thing.  We rode back together at a slow pace and continued on.  Althea came into the first vet check at a heart rate of 60.  We walked on in and she looked great.  We knew we were somewhere at the back of the pack so were not in any giant hurry when we left.  Althea and I waited for our Appaloosa buddy (just a minute or two behind us) and started on the trail - we missed a turn again and went at least 3 miles out of the way again.  By the time we got back to where we should have turned (at the bottom of the hill from the vet check), we figured we had done at least 26-28 miles and were no where near the 2nd check.  At the crossing, some of us (we joined up with 3 other riders who had done the same thing)almost made the decision to walk back up to the vet check and call it quits, but none of us did.  We had a long road to how and a long, steep hill to climb.

This is where my question comes in...Althea seemed to be a bit tired about halfway up the hill and she REALLY wanted to eat.  So I let her.  We stopped and ate... and ate... and ate - all of the other horses left us.  We were now in last place and all alone.  All Althea wanted to do was eat.  She did not want to trot very long before wanting to eat again.  So I let her.  I let her eat and drink all that she wanted.  AND SHE DID.  We arrived at the 2nd vet check at 4:15pm - her heart rate was 48, her gut sounds were perfect (of course), she had no dehydration, and she was not at all lame, but she did not have very much impulsion at the trot out.  Otis knows Althea and knew that she could, under normal conditions, easily finish the last 14 miles in enough time alloted.  But he and I knew that I had been on (and off) my horse for over 8 hours already and that I would have a tough time getting her to go fast enough to finish - so (I think with releif from Otis) I pulled.

Finally - here is my question:  should I have encouraged my very competitive horse to GO and keep up with the other horses who left us?  Where her adrenaline and competitive spirit alone would have kept us going...  Or did I do the right thing and let her eat all that she wanted and knowingly taken the chance at not completing?  She is only 7 1/2 and I really want to take it slow and do lots of miles for the next couple of years and then, if she and I are cut out for it start trying to really compete.

ROOKIE ASKING THE PROS.

Christian & Althea


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