Re: RC: Fwd: RC: Re: Re: "Deadman" Endurance Ride

[BMcCrary27@aol.com]

In a message dated 04/11/2000 8:15:12 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
SandyDSA@aol.com writes:

<< I find this interesting and true - and really almost a joke in light of 
those 
 opinions that LD is rather pointless and that riders should skip that stage 
 and just start with 50s. >>


I would have given a lot to have had a 25-30 mile ride to learn on in 1971 
when I tried my first ride.  I knew nothing, my horse knew nothing, neither 
of us was conditioned to do a tough 50 miler, but that's all that was 
available at that time.  LD rides hadn't been thought of back then.  While 
AERC rules define "endurance" as an event of a minimum of 50 miles, there's 
an enormous lot of value in a LD ride.  I used a 25 miler to start a young 
horse a couple of weeks ago.  It was a success for both of us.  I went 
through several years of depression over my failures fo finish a 50 miler.  
We all need to succeed so we can go on to bigger things.  And if 25-30 miles 
is a big as any of us wants, then so be it.  LDs still have a lot of value in 
their existance. So do 50s, 100s, multi-day....

Barbara