As one of those oh-so-irresponsible beginners, I'm
just going to have to step in here with my own point of view.
Don't hold my hand, don't baby me. Let me
make a mistake, it's probably the only way I'll learn. You can hope that I
won't make a bad enough mistake to cost me my horse, you can wince at my not
doing things the way you would do them, you can come up to me after the
ride with tactful suggestions. Heck, you can even come up to me *before*
the ride with tactful suggestions. Just don't assume I'm a complete idiot
who hasn't done my homework and saddle me with useless rules to make yourself
feel good about "taking care of those idiot rookies" Don't saddle the
responsible riders with burdens meant to hold back the irresponsible
riders.
I have 50 miles of LD. That definitely puts
me your rookie catagory. While I consider myself a more than adequate
horsewoman, with a good seat, and fairly knowledgeable eye, I am new to
endurance as a sport. I have 25 miles done 5 years ago on a horse that
died 7 months after his one and only ride from a condition having nothing to do
with endurance, and 25 miles done a year ago on a horse I realized at his first
ride would never make an endurance horse and sold to a dressage
rider. After the LD on the first horse, I decided that 50's were next, and
was planning on spending a year training *privately* for this 50. We
didn't need any more LD's. With the 2nd horse, the one LD was enough to
realize no amount of training in the world was going to fix his mind.
My newest horse is 4, and has 25 miles
of LD (and a 4 hour completion) and not with me as a rider. I've raised
her for 2 years, she was bred for endurance and raised for endurance.
I'm planning her second LD now, and her first
with me as the rider. I was asked just today how fast I'm going to
go. I said "I dunno. Depends."
Depends on what? Well, how she feels that
morning. How I feel that morning. If it rains. If it gets
hot. If it gets cold. If I get tired of posting and decide to walk
more. If I find a good stretch and canter some. Just plain long lots
of If's and "It just depends". If her little 100 mile trot says we finish
in 3 hours, fine. If we squeek in at 5 hours and 55 minutes, that's fine
too. CTR type minimum speeds are not going
to dictate my ride plan. I'm a big girl, and I take full responsibility
for taking care of my baby girl. Everyone knows I'm a rookie. I
don't need a ribbon in her tail to tell me to slow down. If I wanted minimum times, I'd ride CTR. I've ridden
drag/safety on CTR and found the minimum times not conducive at all to proper
pace maintenance on the part of the riders I was following behind.
I'd hate for someone to have asked me today how
fast I was planning on going and had to have said, "Well my girl has
had plenty of distance over tougher trails. This ride is flat
and easy, but since I'm a rookie, even though my girl could easily finish
in perfect form in 3 hours, I'll have to walk lots to make sure I don't come in
until after 4 hours. That's the minimum you see."
Every horse sport has "yahoos". Every horse
sport has riders and horses that have not trained adequately for the level
competition they seek to master on any given day. In dressage, no one says
you can't ask your 4yo to do passage and piaffe in front of Hilda Gurney.
You'd be stupid, make a fool of yourself, and probably have ruined the horse in
training for such a feat, but no one says you can't try. No one says you
can't throw your just-saved-from-the-knackers horse at a GP caliber show jumping
course. He'd probably hit the first jump, sending you over his ears to
wind up in a wheel chair, but it's your horse. No one says you can't take
your 2yo and run a 14 second can chase. You'd probably destroy his legs in
training, and definitely destroy his mind, but if you want just that one win,
you can go for it.
It's the rider's responsibility. I'm the
rider. Ergo, it's *my*
responsibility. If I had trained and conditioned enough to "race" a horse
in on an 50, let me. You never know, I might actually know what I'm
talking about.
