Re: RC: Re: LD and BC

[Bette Lamore <woa@stormnet.com>]

Sue
That's a wonderful idea! I've ridden since I could walk and done all day
trail rides since I was a kid. BUT I don't pretend to know beans about
true distance riding--- just what I've picked up on ridecamp. And all
your talk about electrolytes, GL, heart-rate monitors and Lord knows all
the other high tech stuff leaves me very intimidated. I went to one 25
miler with Linda Hedgpeth. Unfortunately it rained--- we were completely
unprepared for that possibility, plus the trails were slick. With two
horses/riders on their first 25, we thought the better part of valor was
to cut our losses and call it a nice camping trip. Disappointing but I
know how apprehensive I was on this 25 miler--- can't even imagine doing
a 50 (although I have gone 50 miles in all day trail rides--- but
totally different). It would be nice if there were 25's specifically
geared towards the "I know not and know that I know nots" with lectures
and workshops offered the day before the ride--- kind of a workshop
environment. If anyone would like to put on such an event at my place, I
have the facility plus I'm close to Montana De Oro--- a fabulous riding
place where you can ride both on the beach and in the woods. Couldn't
house HUNDREDS, but enough people to have a good size group. Email me if
anyone is interested or has a similar idea. Looks like many of us could
benefit.
Bette
Bette Lamore
Whispering Oaks Arabians, Home of 16.2hh TLA Halynov
(yes, REALLY!)
http://www.arabiansporthorse.com

Sue Brown wrote:
> 
> At 03:21 PM 7/5/00 -0400, CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com wrote:
> >In a message dated 7/5/00 12:03:13 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> SandyDSA@aol.com
> >writes:
> >
> ><< << Also, if riders (not the horses) were required to ride X number of LDs
> >  (miles) before they could do 50s, there might be more of a chance that they
> >  would develop a better concept of pacing and it would give them a chance to
> >  learn more about the sport before they leap into the longer distances >>
> >  Yes - thoughts? I have thought of this as an option, >>
> >
> >Sorry, but there ARE a fair number of riders who know what they are doing
> and
> >can get through all that prep work at home--and not just the vastly
> >experienced.  Those who are already well-versed in other disciplines and who
> >do their homework can often start out quite safely on 50's.  As one who
> did a
> >100 as my first ride, I know I would have been very "turned off" from the
> >sport by such an approach--I had ridden a great many miles checking cows on
> >our cattle range prior to ever taking up distance riding, and had done some
> >CTR's of 35-60 miles (the 60's were 2 days) that were not NATRC and set 5-7
> >mph paces--and quite frankly, found them to be not very challenging, after I
> >turned in my umpteenth "perfect" PR score and near perfect vet score.  We
> >should ADVISE people without a great deal of experience to start with LD's,
> >and how to use them, but keep in mind that not all that start this sport are
> >novices with their first horses!
> >
> >Heidi
> >
> 
> While I have to agree with this to a certain extent, I know that there are
> quite a few "experienced" horse people out there (myself included) who had
> not done much distance riding before they got interested in endurance...and
> didn't really know what all of the aspects of competition was really like.
> What 25-30 miles is *really* like, along with the whole concept of vet
> checks, camping with your horse, how to ride the trails (read the markings
> so you don't get lost ;-)), and so on), can't be realized until it has
> actually been done.  Without having done much distance riding in the past
> (a great lot of us have emerged from kinda pokey trail riding or
> predominantly life in arenas and *certainly* nothing that involved more
> than 2 hours at a time in a saddle <g>), what this amount of saddle time
> can do to the older human bodies can be significant...so introducing the
> human abuse part slowly should be a serious consideration. TIC <g>
> 
> Seriously, tho...I agree with the general premise...I just don't think it
> would kill people to have to do a couple of LDs before adding the stressors
> of the longer distances, both horse and human. <g>  If they feel they're
> ready, they can move on up...if not, they can continue with LD until they
> feel they're ready (if ever.)  If everybody did it, it wouldn't seem out of
> place.  The couple of required LDs (or maybe even just one) would have the
> sole purpose of making sure the competitors understood the whole picture
> and had received a certain minimum of education before they continued on.
> There is a lot to learn and the basics, imo, should be in place before the
> longer distances are started.  The additional novice meeting held after the
> basic ride meetings would be geared towards making sure that novice
> competitors really do start out with a certain level of
> education...complete with handouts and educational material reference lists
> and where to get what they might look to find what interests them,
> including tack and supplies.  While you can't force people to perform
> intelligently even if you spoon fed the instructions, a bit more of a
> structured introduction would help a lot of novice competitors (both
> experienced horsemen and real greenhorns who really *are* interested in
> doing the best they can) get a good start.  It would also prevent the
> complete ignoramus from jumping into 50s totally unprepared...even tho they
> might, (and some times, very egocentrically) think they are.  Just the
> teacher in me, I guess. ;-)
> 
> Sue
> 
> 
> sbrown@wamedes.com
> Tyee Farm
> Marysville, Wa.
> 
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