RE: [RC] was drafting, now -- how the heck to start safely! - Sharon Levasseur
My horse just did his first ride in a year
and a half.? I was convinced he’d be a hellion at the start... but
apparently the time off (pleasure rides only) did the trick!? He walked at the
start and was content to trot at just under 8 miles an hour (instead of around
14mph like usual).? No bucking or misbehavior, 100% under control.
So... you may be in for a real treat!!
Sharon Levasseur, Maine
www.zegifts.com
-----Original Message----- From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Beth Leggieri Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006
2:32 PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] was drafting, now --
how the heck to start safely!
Angie said:
I may be one of the guilty people who hooks up though...especially at the
start. In order to get my horse out of the "search and destroy"
mentality of passing all comers I have a habit of trying to focus him on one
horse (preferably with a wide butt that blocks his view of all others) and get
him to settle in to travel with it. I guess the people at Million Pines had a
one in 86 chance I'd pick them and big ol' Harley got unlucky. >g<
However, my motivation is always control, not trying to get someone to pull me
down the trail.
***
Which leads me to this---
I am in the process of trying to start over,
reprogram, redo, improve--whatever you want to call it--our starts.
We've been training at a trail riding pace the past few months in an effort to
relax the horse's brain. It's been delightful and he's been a joy to ride
by himself in non-competitive situations, but I have no illusions that it will
carry over seamlessly to an actual ride. This weekend I plan to
do two very slow 15 mile fun rides back-to-back on Sat/Sun at an organized AERC
ride just for that specific purpose--so I can train by myself in a ride
environment.
Sure would like to hear some discussion on "the
start" . . . what can be proactively done in ridecamp before the ride
starts to set the such as how long before saddling for the ride, how long
to warm up, when to leave (besides the obvious--wait for the pack to leave) to
set the horse up for success.
Since we've been doing well on the trail by
ourselves (not at an actual ride, but in training) am I being foolish to
think I can now *safely* transfer this over to a ride environment? In the
past when we didn't ride with a group, my horse was frantic to catch the next
horse or group -- looking for that herd to hook up with. At what point
will I know that we can do this by ourselves at a ride without actually trying
it alone?
Thanks, Beth Leggieri
Denton, TX
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