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RE: [RC] Trails or not trails...Need input - Bob MorrisMaryanne: When ever possible we trained our horses off trail and cross country. As far as we are concerned it is the best way to condition as the footing is not regular as in an arena or on a road/trail. The irregularities will strengthen the tendons and ligaments and the horse learns to pay attention. Our most liked terrain was in downed timber where the logs lay like jackstraws. Better than any cavalletti as there is nothing regular about the way they lay. I would say you have a great advantage if you can train where there are no trails or paths. Just start our slow and work up to a fair trot over time. Bob Bob Morris Morris Endurance Enterprises Boise, ID -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Maryanne Stroud Gabbani Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 3:20 AM To: Ridecamp Subject: [RC] Trails or not trails...Need input Last week, before I got the flu and bronchitis that's had me in bed all week, I sat with the people who have started the Egyptian Endurance Riding Association. They started this group about the second year of the UAE/FEI endurance inundation here to provide an alternative format for rides. They haven't done much really and they asked me to come into the group to handle the webpage, educational articles and scheduling....ie about everything to do with contact and organisation. I told them that I would come in gradually with the website and planning and such over the next year until I've made my move to my new place and hopefully have some more time for this. One of the things that had time to nag at me this week is an issue that I suspect has enormous impact on our horses. When we ride in the desert here, we have NO trails....that's right, nothing but plain sand and rocks and more sand. You are hard pressed to ride in exactly the same places as last time even if you want to because there are so few markers to go by. When they have rides/races, the course is marked by poles jammed into the sand with flags on them, but the "track" is non-existent. There are a few places in our desert where there are dirt tracks that could be followed for a while, but nothing that goes anywhere you want to go. Digesting a few years of ride stories and looking over photo pages, I realise that even the desert rides in the US use dirt tracks or tracks of some sort for the trail, right? This is what I need to know, because riders here tend to ride in the style of the more "experienced" visitors, who I believe are not usually riding in the same terrain. So I have really a sort of stupid question here: Does ANYONE ride without any trail whatsoever? If so, where and when? I believe that there are a lot of tendons relying on this answer and I may have some serious changes to encourage in riding patterns. The footing in a sandy track is not at all the footing in virgin desert, if you will excuse the expression. Maryanne Cairo, Egypt =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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