Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Karen -

I did a year of LDs with my mare before trying my first 50 for a couple 
reasons:

1- she was trained as a jumper and was 16 when I got her, so I did not know 
how well legged up she was prior to me buying her, but I still wanted to 
compete, because you can do 25 mile training rides, but they still don't 
prep you for the atmosphere at a *ride*
2- I wanted to be more sure of my ability before moving to 50s as the brains 
of the team. The next horse I bring along I will move to 25s more quickly 
because I will be more experienced by then
3- I thought I only wanted to do 25s because I loved to say "you get to 
leave late, finish early, and have a beer while the 50s are on their last 
loop".  [I eventually decided 25 miles wasn't enough of a challenge.]

The only way I think that 25s were not positive was I do think they "taught" 
my mare that she didn't have to eat/drink real well until after the ride. 
But she is the most finicky thing in the world - if you have a good 
eater/.easy keeper this would probably be less of a concern. She did learn 
at her first hold at 40 miles BTW that gee, I'm a little peckish from all 
that mileage.

Kristen

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karen Casemier" <kcrazzmatazz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 12:16 PM
Subject: [RC] LDs "bad" for horses


> In the current discussion about 100 mile participation, as well in past 
> discussions, I've heard multiple people mention that the LD rides are not 
> the best thing *for certain types of horses*.
>
> As someone who was planning on staying at the LD level for a while because 
> I thought it was the "right" thing to do, and who is now thinking my horse 
> would be more comfortable mentally with the longer distances (she just 
> seems to settle better the longer I ride), I would like to hear more from 
> people whose horse just weren't LD horses. Really, the only thing right 
> now preventing me from entering a 50 is my inexperience - despite reading 
> multiple discussions about the different conditioning approaches for 50 
> mile rides, I still don't know how to gauge if my mare is ready (perhaps 
> that is the problem - one person insists you need to be riding 50 miles a 
> week, another says they get in one good conditioning ride on the weekend - 
> no wonder I'm confused!).
>
> Comments? 



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