Re: new comers to the sport

[Bluebirdpr@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/22/99 8:39:06 AM Eastern Standard Time, trc@gte.net
writes:

<< DO WE NEED MORE PEER PRESSURE???
 It is extemely frustrating for someone like myself , who has ridden
 endurance for so many years, watch these new riders self destruct their
 horses so blindly!
 I have tried to put on clinics to educate new riders, but how do you tell
 someone who just top tened a 25, that  they really do not know what they
 are doing??... They just top tened!!!
 These riders think a year of riding 25's qualifies themselves and their
 horses as ready to win a 50.
 Any  suggestions??
   
  >>

I too am disturbed by what I see at some of the rides (I pit crew a lot so I
see a lot).  I live in an equine resort and see a lot of once a month riders
come in and run their horses up and down these mountains to the point I've
seen two over the last three years that died of exhaustion.  I preach and
preach to these people and even had the barn manager put together a brochure
on conditioning and the dangers of running your horse in the ground.  We are
putting on our first endurance ride in April and a lot of these once a month
riders are entering the 25 mile.  I have talked to most of these people and
explained the difference between a casual weekend trail ride and an endurance
race.  The problem is the ones that think that 25 miles is nothing.  These are
your cowboys and macho riders with there macho horses.  Most are Quarter horse
and gaited horse riders and don't know the first thing about conditioning.
Not to say these horses can't do endurance as I have gaited horses but will
condition for about 18 months before I do a 25 miler unless I do a competitive
trail.
   I also think that with the rapid addition of new rides each year, we are
bringing in new vets that just haven't had the time and experience in the
sport.  It's not their fault, it's ours for expanding this sport to fast.  The
one thing I've seen at some rides but not all is that all new riders must meet
after the ride meeting with the vets and are told how to take care of their
horses.  This should be a requirement at all rides.  I even had this crazy
idea one time of qualifications to get to 50s and 100s, having to have
completed so many LSD to move up.  Oh well just my opinions, but I do
understand what you are saying.  

Phil