RC: Posted today on a mostly Dressage Riders' BB . . .

[Deanna German <dgerman@earthlink.net>]

You have a gift, Angie. And I am grateful that you discovered it and are
using it.

I wonder how the person on the dressage list developed such a perception
of endurance. I'm pretty sure it didn't come from one article in a horse
publication. Maybe she talked to people like the guy I met last weekend
on a hot, steamy Sunday morning.

I was stomping around my local trails (on foot) looking for areas that
wouldn't invlove asking my horse to go through knee deep suck mud. When
I heard this man's horse through the trees, I called out "Hello, I don't
want to startle your horse." As he approached, we struck up a
conversation.

His horse had mud up to his knees and I commented on that, saying that
the horse was handling the mud well. He replied that he was very
pleased, especially since the horse was a 5YO and Arab to boot. (I was
going to guess that the horse was a Quarab but it just turn out that it
was VERY fat. Huffing and puffing and sweating profusely) The
conversation inevitably turned to the type of riding we both do. I
always say I do "distance" riding because I haven't done endurance (50
miles) yet. I said this and then went on to say that I'm trying to
condition my coming 5YO and if I can't get out on trails, that I
wouldn't be able to enter the rides coming up. He replied that he had
done some "endurance" (I suspect he meant LD since a lot of people
around here don't make the distinction) but that he doesn't do
"endurance" anymore since he doesn't have the time to ride like he needs
to.

I said, "yeah, it's hard to get out every other day or so between work
and weather." His reply was "you're riding your horse too much!"

me: "Excuse me? Every other day is too much?" (I alternate ring-work
with light trail-work and do a 10+ mile ride when I can bum trailer
space; maybe once or twice a month)
him: "Yeah, you can overdo it and stress them. When I was doing
'endurance' I rode once a week. Heck, you talk to the people that ride
the 50 milers, and they hardly ride at all between competitions."

me: "But that's during the ride season, not while they're getting the
horse into shape. You want to ride at least as many miles during the
week as the competition mileage." (Yes, I am the all knowing newbie. Ha,
ha, ha. I kill me.)  "Besides, if I enter a competition, I want to know
my horse has a shot at placing." (A dream at this point... me and my
horse haven't competed yet.)
him: "Well, yeah, I rode 20 - 30 miles once a week and I placed a lot
when I was competing."
me: "? ? ? ? ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ? !"

So here you have this guy on an extremely overweight, out-of-condition
Arab telling people about his experience with endurance. Was he telling
the truth? I suspected not (no sponge on the saddle made me suspicious),
but how would a person outside the sport know? He rides Arabs, has an
endurance saddle, talks the talk. Must know what he's talking about.

Comments?

Deanna