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Re: [RC] [RC] How did you get started? - AprilWhat a fun topic!I started riding when I was 16 and had the good fortune to become best friends with a girl that had her own horse and was horse crazy and rode a lot. We rode all over while we were teenagers and I remember my friend mentioning that some local girls wanted to go do an LD ride. We laughed it off as something we would ever do because those girls were crazy, ran their horses into the ground, and we would never do that. Just to note, those girls DID ride their horses very hard and very fast, but they never did do an endurance ride that I'm aware of. My friend and I thought that you had to be that way to do endurance, though. Fast-forward several years. I was in college with my own horse, finally. A very stubborn Appy that never did bond to me. I was surfing around on the internet and found endurance.net . No idea how I managed that. I was not searching for endurance. Just looking at horse stuff. My friend was involved with family stuff, married with a kid, so I was bored and on my own horse-wise. I read and read and read. And posted on Ridecamp. I was intrigued. So I began riding my horse to condition for my first LD ride. I managed to get ahold of a truck and a trailer and went to my very first ride. Bareback in jeans. I finished (despite some drama when I thought I wouldn't), but could not fathom staying until awards. I was in some serious pain. I still have scars. However, I was hooked and went to do another LD several weeks later. Still bareback, still in jeans, but with panty hose underneath. So much better! No scars from that ride! Then my life took a different direction. I sold my horse, got married, got a real job. A year after selling my Appy, I bought a grey Arabian whose owner threatened to send him to the meat people if he threw her one more time. (I don't think she'd have done it, but I like to think I rescued him anyway! ;-)) This boy had some issues and I had him 2 years before I felt he was safe enough to get back into endurance, even though that was my goal all along. I got lots of *stuff* in that 2 years, too. Gathered up saddles, trailers, trucks, endurance tack, all that. Still read a whole bunch of RC. So long story! :-) I have Tanna, the grey Arabian who has mellowed with age, trust, and training. He is my baby and we are very bonded. Way more than I ever bonded with my Appy. Then I have my best friend's horse. The friend from high school who taught me to ride. This horse doesn't like distance. He's very lazy and we have never bonded. But he's a great friend for my Tanna and he's a great beginner's horse. I can not ride him for months, then hop on him like he'd been ridden last week. Or put my 3 year old niece on him for a lead around the pasture. When I started, I didn't know many people. Now I have tons of great friends. It's amazing. I even met the lady I bought Tanna from through Ridecamp while I still had my Appy. I have several local endurance friends and also several that I only see at rides and some I've never even met IRL! :-) Anyway, welcome. Read, ask questions, learn, and come join us! It's great fun! You'll be "one of us" in no time! April Nashville, TN www.tracetribute.com On 1/5/06, Mel Cochran <brio_gal@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi,
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