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[RC] A Newbies Ramblings & A Heartfelt Thank You - PartII - LeslieThe first smart thing we did was park into the wind. The wind and sand probably only gusted to around 50 mph the next day so this was invaluable. Now Kathy's trailer was a handy little Circle J steel 2 horse slant bumper pull with a tack room. Quite nifty as all the partitions are collapsible. So you just bring a broom, sweep it out, and lay down a tarp. It's an open trailer so don't forget a second tarp in case it rains. Next fold in a cot and add a sleeping bag. All those handy tie rings make a great place to hang a lantern. Last but not least and my personal favorite, a 5 gallon bucket filled about 1/3 full with kitty litter for a midnight latrine. WahLah! You're snug as a bug in a rug. Never mind that you really won't be able to sleep because the horse tied to the trailer has to rattle his bucket every 5 minutes or so just to make sure it's empty Now if you ever end up crewing for Kathy here are a few tips. Although she'll bring enough fancy fixins' to make Martha Stewart proud, the only thing she'll really eat is cold Kentucky Fried Chicken and Cherry Yogurt. So don't waste your time waving all the rest of the stuff under her nose. The one caveat is she does't really drink so just go ahead and plan on hooking her up to an IV once she quits foolin' with the horse. TRAINING (Some Riding Skills Required) Kathy, being my mentor and all was in charge of our training and conditioning. To fully appreciate this challenge a little background is required. I've been riding for about 5 years but I'm still pretty novice in a lot of ways. Plus Merlin is my first horse and although I'll credit my inexperience to much of his misbehavior he can still win the certified butt head award all by himself on occasion. Given all this, endurance riding is very very technical for me. There are things like SPEED and HILLS to contend with. And then there is Merlin, who'd just assume combine both! I'll never forget my first ride out at Kathy's place in Cerrillos. Kathy has access to the most wonderful trails for endurance training. The down side of this is that there are lots of hills. Being completely terrified, I dictated that trotting was only allowed up hill - otherwise we would walk. As you can imagine it was slow going and even then SLOW DOWN was my word for the day. This is really where Kathy gets put up for Sainthood. She's very very patient with terrified newbies. I survived and slowly started to build a little confidence. Once I could contend with HILLS and SPEED a little better we had to work on Merlin's behavior with other horses. He's generally just fine as long as he's in front, however, if asked to take a secondary position all hell generally breaks loose. So Kathy enlisted her horse Blue to learn us better. Now this is where Blue gets put up for sainthood as he had to endure hours and hours of Merlin riding up his butt, biting his butt, and all manner of torture and wasn't even allowed to defend himself! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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