Distance Riding

["shermano" <shermano@prodigy.net>]

Hi Elizabeth:  South Carolina is one of the prettiest places and has nice
weather most of the year.  Too bad it seems to be a target for hurricanes,
but we get good warnings these days.  Anyway, I think that distance riding
can be anything you want to make of it.  Endurance riding is just one of the
extremes that some people push towards.
  I don't know anything about your situation, but if you can get to a place
where you can spend 2 hours a day, 2 or 3 days a week around horses, you can
start to figure out what you want to do with them.  I learned so much from
this newsletter, Ridecamp, I recommend it everyone, even if they don't care
about horses and just need a good laugh every morning.
    We started doing distance as soon as we got our horse.  Don't laugh! I
actually stayed on the old guy for an hour at a steady walk.  And I wasn't
sore afterwards! Comfort is important to a 50 year-old guy.  This was very
different from when I used to ride as a kid at those places where you rent a
horse for an hour and walk forever and get off all stiff.  Anyway, that had
been my previous experience with horses.  So this was pleasantly different,
and encouraged me to want to do more.  Pretty soon I was fighting with my
daughter for saddle time.  And it hasn't gotten any better until just
recently when she seems to be so busy with the youngster that I can actually
get to ride the old guy again. And all this riding had been just around our
neighborhood; no big investment, no truck or trailer.  Until now...
  Last year we went to our first endurance ride... well it was called a CTR
(Continuously Torturous Ride?).  That was a big mistake.  Even though we
didn't enter it, (we only volunteered), we had so much fun that we had to go
back for more.  There seems to be some element of self-destruction working
in the minds of endurance riders.  I haven't been able to figure it out yet,
but once I get to personally meet one of the "Greats" of the sport, I may
get some insight for my thesis on it.
   We are displaced/misplaced Canadians living in Florida and have had
horses for only 6 years.  We own 2 Morgans and they are pretty healthy.  My
daughter rides the 21-yr old in 25 mile rides, and is training our 3 and a
half to not trample people.  Her latest problem with the youngster is: "He
won't switch leads"... so we are getting a professional to work with him.
To me, that's horse jargon for "he does something strange with his legs."  I
just want him to not kick or trample me.  Anyway, he's really too young for
anything serious but we play with him a lot so he stays friendly to us.
   Well, I hope you don't think that strength, or the lack of it, should be
a major concern in horsing around. My daughter started handling and doing
everything for herself and her horse when she was 9.  She is a skinny little
thing but still does it all.  I have a bad back so she has HAD to do it all.
I'm just the chauffeur and helper.
  Have fun.  sherman



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