[RC] 100 miler very possible and very wonderful - Kerry GreearI'm a lurker and a newbie, but had to respond to this thread:In December of 2003, I by chance saw the book, Tevis Cup, at a bookstore. I had heard the term "endurance riding" but knew nothing about it. I was looking for a goal in my life (you know, the big 50, empty nester thing) and after reading the book and being fascinated by the history of the trail and the people who seemed to have love/hate relationships with it, I decided I was going to do it! I read Julie Suhr's book and Nancy Loving's book, ridecamp almost every day, searched the archives, picked the brains of a friend who is a runner, then started. I did a 50 in June of 2004, got sick but took good care of my horse, and got hooked. This trailriding woman with a wonderful morab jumped in with both feet and did Tevis this year. And I had a wonderful time the whole way, Hawk did great, and we finished. So, set short term goals to meet your long term goals and listen to the people who have done them. Julie Suhr told me I could do it. Jonni told me I could do it. Friends I met at rides, Patti Crawford and Dorothy Sue Phillips said we could do it. My family told me they would kill me if I quit! (My family/crew looked worse than I did at the end!!.) If I would have stopped at Michigan Bluff (where we took 35 minutes after vet check because Hawk was starving) I would never have wanted any sort of mileage credit. That would completely diminish the 18 months I worked my butt off to get ready to do that ride. By the way, thank you all for encouraging people like me to just try. And thank you for making information accessible. If this sport was easy, I wouldn't have wanted to try it. Kerry Greear from South Dakota =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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