For us, since we weren't there to win any awards (or
even follow the rules much, for that matter), what we did was do a normal
training pace (averaging 5mph) but when we knew we were "too far ahead" of our
time, we'd stop in a nice green meadow and let the horses eat, let a bunch of
people pass us, then move out again. It worked well. I'm not sure if
eating on the trail is allowed in NATRC, however...
:-)
Mike
Having just done a 25-mile LD in 5 hours on two
green horses (well, I was only on one, my husband was on the other...
<g>), and thinking it was REALLLY slow, I don't think we could get many
of our good prospects to go as slow as what NATRC decrees for their novice
rides. That's less than 3 mph. Unless the terrain is just tortuous
ups and downs, we'd have to WALK the whole way to go that slow. We did 5
mph at the LD, which included A LOT of walking, and a fair amount of time at a
nice, medium, working trot, and still had PLENTY of time to stop and learn
about things along the way. That's about as slow as I'd care to go
with a horse that's got anything on the ball at all. Much slower, and
he'll be looking for something else to do along the way....
Heidi
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 8:23
PM
Subject: RE: [RC] new topic re green
horses
On advice from Nancy Twight, I took my green horse
to a NATRC novice ride (20 miles in 7 hours) as his first event.
|