What is the age limit for juniors endurance
riders? I know 16 is max, how old do you have to be to start?
thanks
** My daughter did her first LD ride when she was
9. It is a personal choice as AERC has no minimun age limits for junior
riders. Our decision to do it was based on her overall responsibility to
her pony (Welsh pony), and once she said she did want to do the ride (months
in advance), she made a committment to condition that pony and learn about
what she would need to do at the ride. She was old enough to do all care
(feeding, supplements, electrolytes, tacking up), as well as presenting pony
to vet and trotting out. She also had some understanding of how and why
we would warm up and ride a consistent pace, and even knew about heart
rate. Most important, she and the pony were a good team, I trusted the
pony and Brenna had very good control of the pony WITHOUT being controlled by
me (i.e. being ponied). We had done enough rides I felt she could handle
the distance, and the whole experience of the trip, camping, lack of sleep,
etc. I chose a ride where I knew the trail and terrain. I rode a
horse "I" had total trust and confidence on. I did put a red ribbon on
the pony to attempt to keep other riders off her butt; which didn't always
work, as one lady on a nutty horse tried to park it behind the pony...ignoring
the red ribbons and pinned ears.....we finally pulled over to force that lady
not to use us as a bumper car.....
That said, I find it a huge flaw in AERC there is
no minumun age for juniors, although it has a minumum age for HORSES. At
this point there is nothing to prevent you from strapping a preschooler
on a horse on a lead line and heading out over rough terrain for 25-100
miles. Don;t think it hasn't been done! Unlike a lot of other
sports, the kids compete on the same trail as adults....so you will be sharing
the trail with high-strung horses, green horses and worse, bad riders.
Even at LD distances, you can be sharing the trail with the racing top 10-ers
on a 50, which may come up behind you pretty fast.
You can check the archives for the former
ridecamp debate on this issue....and will read both sides of the
argument.
