Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

As Melanie pointed out:
> Seems like the thing Endurance is teaching me is patience...

Funnily enough - this is exactly what someone said to
me at an endurance ride once - "hey, this is endurance,
you have to learn patience, no?". But it can be a really
hard lesson to swallow.

And I guess I feel a bit like it's a slap in the face
to read when people like Bob write "If people would just
"do their home work" they would have better success."

Yup. When everything goes right, you do your homework,
you go to your rides, and everything comes together and
it all turns out successful - and *there's no feeling
like it*...

And then you have the flip side - you do your homework
and things don't go as planned. You get injured, your
horse gets injured, your momentum goes in fits and starts
and you find yourself on a permanent roller-coaster of
ups and downs.

My first distance experience was with Provo - he's very
eager, forward-moving, and seemingly has few problems
doing 50s. We moved from doing a 30 one weekend to a 50
the next, and there was little to hold us back.

(Actually there was me: I had had it drummed into me that
"just because the horse thinks he can gallop the entire
ride, doesn't mean he *should*" - so I spent most of our
50s rating him and trying to slow him down).

When I read accounts of people lamenting how "hard it
was to move up to doing a 50" I wondered what these
people were doing?? Afterall, from my experience, it
wasn't *that* hard...

And then I blew my knee out. No riding for a year for
various reasons...  ...then "real life" interfered for
a while, so no real riding for a couple of years...

Three years later I figured it was finally time to bite
the bullet and get Mouse up and running. Mouse was my
"project horse" - I trained her from scratch, which is
how come she was still more-or-less a pasture ornament
at 8 yrs old (hint: I am not a horse trainer). She is
much less motivated than Provo, and was in many ways much
harder to figure out.

Suddenly I could see how come it was that 50s were such
"hard goals" to attain. Unlike Provo, Mouse wasn't a born
distance horse. We had to chip away at it and advance in
tiny steps. I felt like I did my homework with her (much
more than I did with Provo) and slowly we inched forward.

But things weren't going quite right. There was some evidence
of unsoundness, but very fleeting and not tangible enough
to put one's finger on. She did two AERC 30s that weren't
great. She finished, but I can't say we flew over the
line in brilliant shape. I figured we needed to do more
home work.

Then we did two NATRC Open rides. Things seemed to be coming
together. At the second particularly tough NATRC 30 (we got
lost, did extra miles, chased the clock all day, it was 105oF,
etc), she did finish in amazing shape - and that day she
brought tears to my eyes for what she gave me.

Compared to Provo, it wasn't much. He probably could have
completed that 30 without really thinking about it. But for
Mouse it was a big deal. And I felt she was ready for her
first 50 - after ten months.

So I picked the 50 carefully - making sure it was a nice
easy one. I knew she was ready as long as I paced her right.
My biggest worry was keeping her motivated for the distance -
but that proved to be a non-event. She did it! Gah, I was
proud of her.

But the fly in the ointment? She was dead lame at the finish,
so no completion for her (not that she probably cared <g>). I
had to hand-walk her in the last five miles or so. Remember
the fleeting lameness earlier in the year? Well, it caught
up with us and turned out to be a pulled suspensory.

In retrospect, I can look back and see things I did wrong,
see things I could have done differently. Hindsight is
everything. Oh for that crystal ball. I did my homework,
but I was possibly doing the *wrong* homework.

Or not. Who can say?

You could argue "well, Mouse wasn't a born distance horse,
so why were you trying to make her one??". And my retort is,
I've only got two horses, so I have to make the most of what
I've got. Unlike some people, I can't just sell unsuitable
mounts on to new homes. I guess my goal is not to *win* rides,
it's to get the best I can out of the horses I have available
to me.

And it depends how you look at it. In many ways, Mouse is
an excellent distance horse. She's quiet, easy to manage on
the ground, eats like a pig, has a comfy trot to die for,
is easy to rate, will trot all day at 5 mph on a loose rein...

Provo OTOH, the "good" distance horse, has bad ground manners
(twice he has stepped on my little toe just before a ride and
smooshed it flat)(something I can work on, for sure, but to a
certain extent, his behaviour is hard-wired into his personality -
it's just how he is), he's exhausting to ride because he thinks
he can fly, he's pretty rough at the trot (witness my blown-out
knee), he's super-competitive (good if I was planning on riding
for those top-tens, eh? Not high on my list of goals).

And here we are again. A year later. It's Provo's turn again.
Late last year he bowed a tendon, but I think I did my homework
right and towards the end of this year he completed a 25 and a
50. Both without problem or incident. We took it nice and slow.

And then he lamed himself in the paddock. Gosh, if only I'd
done my homework, I'd be much more successful, no? <grrrr>

So we'll see. Hopes of DVE are fading as the clocks went
back and I was faced with less and less riding time to pull
things together. We'll see.

My long-term goals?

Provo - to get 1000 miles on him. Maybe we will. Maybe we
won't. If we do, then we can set another goal.

Mouse - to get her sound enough to participate in rides
again. Hopefully she'll be able to finish 50s nice and
sound... With her, patience is a virtue. It's just really
hard to keep focused when you are moving at the speed of
a slug. And hard to stay motivated when you are constantly
demoralised.


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Lucy Chaplin Trumbull
elsie AT foothill DOT net
Repotted english person in Sierra Foothills, California
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