Re: RC: Re 50's for newbies..irresponsibility???

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/14/00 9:51:25 PM Pacific Daylight Time, gesaeqfx@pe.net 
writes:

<< I had over 2,500 miles logged with AERC before I ever even rode my first
 LD.!!  I pulled myself from my first ride Tar Springs ..also the first time
 the ride was put on.  They had miscalculated the mileage "big time".   I
 finished and or top tenned the rest of my rides for the year.  My first LD
 was appx. 4 yrs ago.  Clovis had a couple of months to go before she was
 5yrs old.  I guess I'm with Maryben.....irresponsible. !!!      >>

Guess I have to join that club, too.  Back in the "olden days" there was no 
such thing as LD's--rides offered one distance, and that was it.  I didn't 
join in on the "First Ride" thread, but my first ride was the Virginia City 
100.  I got through in fine shape, right at midnight, in 28th place out of 92 
starters.  This was back in 1973.  I don't know HOW many miles I had before I 
ever rode a LD ride--in 27 years, I've only done 3.  One was a first ride on 
a young (5--he WAS past his birthday by a couple of months or so) horse that 
needed "Ridecamp 101" more than he needed 50 miles.  One was to "sponsor" a 
first-time adult rider through.  One was my first time out after 4 years off 
with a screwed-up knee.  May do a couple this year simply because I have a 
4-year-old that needs the social experience (orphan child--needs to learn to 
deal with humans as if he is a horse rather than a large, 4-legged fur 
person--has figured that out with "mom" and "dad" but needs to learn that ALL 
people are people).

As for advising newbies what distance to ride--it all depends on the person 
and the horse!  When I started endurance riding, the vast majority of riders 
were long-time riders, many of which had ridden MANY miles in rough terrain 
as ranchers, guides, or various other things.  50 miles might have been 
longer than what we usually rode in a day, but not all that much.  (I know I 
had put in NUMEROUS 30+ mile days checking cows, and 10-15 mile days were the 
norm.)  The demographics of the sport have changed over the years, and the 
majority of new riders come from suburbia and do not have that background.  
When helping a newbie decide what distance to do, one had to take an honest 
look at their experience level and how much conditioning they have done--some 
folks that simply love to ride already have a significant LSD base on their 
horses and are quite ready to do 50.  They need to fine-tune their programs 
if they want to speed up eventually, but they can learn as they go, if they 
ride to their horse's capability and level of preparation.  For the horse's 
sake, I MUCH prefer to start on 50's so they get a mental idea of the 
distance they are going--I've seen far too many LD horses get sour about 
going up to 50's (usually because of racing on LD's, so they fuss and fight 
and burn themselves out, and are truly often not as able to go on as they 
should be) so one of my big cautions to folks starting out on LD's is to 
start with a mid-pack to slow 50-mile pace and not get sucked up by those who 
try to turn the LD's into races.  That can be a hard task for the 
inexperienced rider, unless they are fortunate enough to pair up with someone 
else going the speed they should be going.

Heidi