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I'm probably going to get into trouble for this post - but that's never 
stopped me. The first ride I did on my old mare was a 25 (in fact it was 
my first ride). It was about 90 degrees in South FL in Jan and we had 
showers - which turned the forest into a steam bath. It was survival. I 
came home did my homework. The next ride in Feb was an LD in South FL. 
We ran it in 2:40 and two of us "raced" the whole way. Actually we were 
riding together and having a blast. It was two guys - sort of a guy 
thing :-) . The next LD she would have won if I hadn't had my saddle 
slip as I was ducking a branch to save my butt. We ended up in second. 
However, she had a perfect vet score - the only horse of the day in any 
distance, 25, 50 or 100.

I bred her in May (so she could have the maden thing out of the way). In 
Nov I did an LD - 2:40 again. She'd done it before and it was a walk in 
the park for her. She had the foal in the in mid April and we did our 
first 50 the next Jan. She went on to do about 1800 (endurance not 
counting those scummy inferrior LD) miles - I retired her to breed at 15 
before it was too late after she finsihed the ROC.  She had a couple 
seconds, a first, many top 10's and even a BC. She could do and did do a 
3:40 50 -  and had the best vet score and won BC. Of her miles over 1/3 
of them were one day 100's.  All this and she is a walking horse.

Were the fast LD's bad for her - clearly not. Did them make a difference 
- if they did it was positive. Did they stop her from going on - nope.

Now here is the kicker.

The basic reason was she was 8 years old before she did her first LD. 
She had three years of hacking around and lots of trail riding and lots 
of long fast trail riding before she hit an endurance ride. It's not the 
speed of fast LD's - it's the age!

As far as I can see there are no fixed principles - except one. The 
horse has to be ready to do what you ask of it. A 4 year old is not 
ready to do fast LD's, a five year old is not ready to do fast 50's and 
a 5 year old is not ready to a 100 at any speed.

It's not the speed of the first LD's - it's the age and base of the 
horse. Would  I do a fast LD again - in a hearbeat in a heartbeat if the 
horse was ready, willing, able, and OLD ENOUGH.

Asbestos suite on - fire when ready.

Truman

Jonni wrote:

> Jessica posted: >>>I'm sorry if you feel I shouldn't have "raced" my first
> time. <<<
>
> It is often common for those new to the sport, who "race" right off the bat
> in LD rides, to find later, that was probably not the best thing they could
> have done for their horses future in the sport of endurance. We have had
> many different discussions on Ridecamp that often relate back to the fact
> that going real easy and slow in the beginning, will help to develop that
> horse to then be able to excel in the sport.  Recently the discussion was
> horses that do not eat and drink really well on the trail during the rides.
> Many horses who start with fast LD rides, never learn to do so, as they are
> finished so fast, why bother? But later, when they move up to longer
> distances, where the eating and drinking are even MORE critical to the
> horse, the horse has race brain, and doesn't take as good'a care of itself
> as it should. Horses that are chargy, hard to rate, difficult to slow down
> early in a ride are often ones who learned to race right off the bat. But
> again, when one moves up to the longer distances, if that is a goal, often
> the horses burn themselves out early in the ride, tugging and pulling
> against the rider, or the rider just letting them, "go" and they have
> nothing left to finish the longer distance as they used themselves all up
> early on. Worst case scenario is a horse that has a metabolic crash.....
> which can happen to any one of us, so we should try to do what it takes to
> minimize those risks.
>  

--

"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite 
of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."    Niels Bohr 
-- Nobel Laureate, Physics




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