 |
Re: [RC] LDs "bad" for horses - rdcarrieI've only been in the sport for 6+ years, so don't really consider myself all that experienced. I started with LDs, as much for myself as for my horse. I learned a lot that first year...including that my horse hated the sport and so I needed a new horse. <G> Got a new one, and continued with LD, and eventually moved up to 50s off and on. I now have two youngsters, and 6 years of doing rides under my own belt, and I've learned enough to feel comfortable bypassing LDs. I did one LD on my 6 yr old, just because I wanted to do a ride on him a few weeks after I bought him. His next ride was a 50 - he was marginally conditioned for it, but we'd been doing 15-19 mile conditioning rides, during which he never settled down, and he wasn't going to learn anything on an LD, so we entered the 50...got pulled at 38 miles due to him slipping and falling in mud and bruising his hip, but I still had lots of horse left. His next rides were two 55s at Fort Stanton a few weeks a
go, both of which he sailed through. After the first 5-6 miles of the second one, he settled into a great working attitude and was very business-like. I finally saw him just a *little* tired at the end of the second day. And, he finally learned to settle down and take care of himself. Many CT region 50s tend to be 4 short loops with 3 holds. Our training rides are longer than these loops, and he didn't eat well during his LD or the 3/4 of a 50 he did. At Ft. Stanton, on day 1, it was a 20 mi. loop to the first hold...during which he didn't eat much. I wasn't worried. Next loop was 27 miles...and he got hungry! <G> Gave him lots of grass breaks, and he never stopped eating at the next hold. His second day, loop 1 was again 20 miles. At the hold, he never stopped eating...the boy had got religion on the first day!! This horse needed the longer distance (and I think, the longer loops) to teach him to not pass up food.
I have a coming 5 year old that I picked up from the trainer last weekend, and his first ride will be a 50. *I* feel more comfortable assessing when a horse is ready for a 50 now, without doing 25s first, and I just don't want them to ever learn that they're done after 2 loops.
Dawn in East Texas and Bear (you should have warned me about that 27 mi. loop, Mom!) -----Original Message----- From: Karen Casemier <kcrazzmatazz@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 13:16:02 -0400 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 confus ed!). Comments? =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|