re desperate endurance wannabe

[KarenBrat1@aol.com]

Hi Mary,

I tried to reply privately but the e-address listed on your post was returned 
as undeliverable.  I'm very much a newbie too, I have only done two LD's and 
that was in '99, I simply can't afford to do endurance for several years yet. 
 As far as all the rides are from me, I figure between entry fees and gas it 
will cost me a minimum of $125-150 to go to each ride!  Plus, I work most 
Saturdays and of course that's when all the rides are.  I'm in northern 
Idaho, and my best friend, who used to do tons of NATRC and AERC in CA (and 
has taught me SO much about taking care of horses on the trail), lives in 
central Oregon.  For the cost of attending two endurance rides I can go spend 
two WEEKS with her, riding 15-25 miles every day in Oregon's beautiful 
wilderness areas :-)  But someday, I would really like to be able to do more 
real endurance riding!

I was very nervous about my first LD, but a lot of folks here on Ridecamp 
encouraged me to go do it.  Horses are much tougher than you think :-)  If 
your horse is conditioned at all, and if she does a lot of arena work she 
should be fine, you should have no trouble completing LD if you're not trying 
to race.  At a ride I volunteered at, there were two girls on obviously show 
ring Arab mares, who were doing the LD to gain some sort of versatility 
points for their horses.  These mares were piggy fat, yet in decent aerobic 
shape because of lots and lots of arena miles.  The girls took it easy and 
finished about 20 minutes before the time deadline, and the horses were 
fine... though very much more humble, to their riders' delight :-D

Re trail nerves, there was a great post by Angie McGhee replying to someone's 
post about "Pre ride jittttterrrsssss"... go to the Ridecamp archives, 
Angie's post was on Tuesday Oct. 23, 2001.  

So, go for it!!  I hear there is some gorgeous riding over there in the 
Olympic Nat'l Forest... have fun :-)

Karen Bratcher
Athol, Idaho