Steve wrote, "Take a look at the Ride & Tie website for how they deal with
mentoring. Maybe AERC or Endurance Net can do something similar. Ride and
Tie's mentoring program has been pretty successful. You may want to talk to
Curt Riffle or Carol Ruprecht about it." See: http://www.rideandtie.org Steve Shaw
AERC actually
does have a mentoring program. There is a list of people willing to mentor on
the AERC website. In addition as others have pointed out at every ride meeting
the night before a ride, if someone new is looking for someone to ride with, all
they have to do is tell the Ride manager and they will announce it usually at
the end of the meeting and set you up with someone. All you have to do is
ask.
I remember my first endurance ride on my
horse Beau, he was rearing up so much I couldn't even get on him, even with my
late husband, who was 6'5" holding him. My husband was begging me not to ride
when one of the last riders to leave camp, Karlon Oliver walked by. She saw my
horse acting like a fire- breathing dragon and said, " I use to have a
horse just like him , park your horse behind mine and let's go." And I've been
riding with her ever since. Karlon is really a special person, but there are
people at every ride willing to let a newbie ride with them. : )
Carol
