riding safety

[RhndLev@cs.com]

Because of my recent knee injury, I've decided not to compete with Special 
this year.  I was really bummed, though, about missing out on the rides and 
was really looking forward to meeting new people and getting to know people I 
already knew a little better.  I was chatting with a friend who suggested we 
volunteer as safety riders, so this weekend, we went to a MOTDRA sponsored 
ride.  [MOTDRA does both endurance and CTR, but doesn't follow NATRC rules on 
the competitive trail rides.]  This was a CTR and was "only" 30 miles for the 
open and 15 miles for the limited distance.  

Special went on the first ten mile loop to follow the 15 mile riders 
(supposedly) and put out the tokens for the second loop.  I had expected my 
mellow, fairly low key Tennessee Walker to be pretty good at this riding drag 
thing, and thought my knee would be my biggest problem.  Nope.  This mare 
wanted to RACE.  Spent the day saying, "we can win this, MOM."  

I discovered pretty early that the 15 milers I was following were going so 
slowly that I was going to have to pass in order to get the tokens out to the 
end of the loop by the time the first 30 milers were getting there for the 
second time.  Up to that point, I had been turning Special in circles and 
working on rating her speed down to a walk.  I was really happy by how well 
she did in terms of settling down and coming to terms with the idea of 
staying behind the other horses and in allowing me to rate her speed.  Though 
she was ECSTATIC when allowed to pass them.  We did some cantering, but the 
was rocky in places and the rocks were hidden in the grass, but it was a good 
lesson for Special and I both in watching our footing carefully and being 
prepared to slow down suddenly.

All in all, it was a good training ride for us and the "official" riders were 
really nice and thanked me for helping with the ride.  The ten miles was 
enough of a ride for me at this point because my knee was starting to really 
hurt by about mile 8, though I was quite relieved that Special did not seem 
affected by the ride at all.  In fact, I managed to get one of the volunteers 
to take Special back out onto the trail briefly so that she could get 
accustomed to the idea that just because she gets back to camp and the saddle 
comes off does not necessarily mean that the ride is over.  My volunteer 
reported that Special seemed eager to get back on the trail and moved out 
well, but would not do the running walk her.  But, the person doing me the 
favor had never ridden a gaited horse before either.  I think Special and I 
both learned a lot by volunteering to help.  I think doing this for a whole 
season before competing will be good for us.

Rhonda and Special