Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I had to laugh at Angie's message. My husband and I are both starting out in 
distance riding, and we have the two most opposite horses: he rides a young 
15.2 QH gelding, and I'm on 14.3 Morgan mare. We did our first ride together 
a couple of weeks ago. His gelding, turning six next week, at his first ride 
ever, walked into the checks and his pulse dropped like a rock. If we waited 
10 minutes to take his pulse, he probably would have been at about 10 ;>). 
My mare has great recoveries in training, but is so darn interested and 
excited at the vet check that she'll drop down into the 50s, and then rocket 
back up into the 80s. It takes her 5-10 minutes and a very quite and calm 
p&r person to get her to reach criteria. I can't imagine the kind of penalty 
points I'd incur in CTR. The gelding wins the vet check competition.

However, out on the trail, my mare's ears are forward, she gets pissed off 
if I let a horse pass her, and she has boundless energy and has discovered 
an incredible forward trot and an effortless canter. The gelding, on the 
other hand, could have cared less who passed him and who was in front of 
him, and even though he has a huge stride, would often end up 1/4 mile 
behind me because he could not keep up with my mare (and keep in mind we 
lost out on the turtle award by once placing, so it wasn't like I was 
speeding along!). At one point, I thought I was going to have to grab his 
reins and DRAG him to the finish (he has great recoveries and great working 
heart rate, he's in excellent shape, he just does NOT have the drive my mare 
has). The expression on both horse's faces said it all about their 
personalities. It was quite obvious my mare was having the time of her life 
(didn't like having to stop and wait around at the vet check, but ate up the 
trail). The gelding was punching the clock.

Needless to say, once my mare figures out the vet check thing and starts 
recovering more quickly and consistently, she is leaving LD and moving on to 
50 milers.

The gelding will then leave LD and go onto CTR, where I'm sure he will 
absolutely flourish. He will never waste one ounce of energy more than is 
absolutely required of him.



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