See what I told you about these Central Region
Wanna Be Turtles? Hiding behind bushes. Taking naps, pulling perfectly good
shoes off of innocent horses...Whatever it takes to win... I told you they
play hardball around here.
Even that Nancy Mitts who sounded sooo innocent in
her post..:).... Well, She and her husband Monte have dragged down more than
their share of Turtle awards. I have ridden in LD rides where Monte
was riding the 50 mile ride, and I passed him halfway through my first loop. He
had an hour head start, and I caught him at about the 8-9 mile
marker. Whenever he rode, we always knew not to expect him at the finish
line until 15-20 minutes before the cutoff. His attitude was he
paid an entry fee, and was going to use up all his time enjoying it. I am
telling you we have some serious Turtlers here. You may see some that look
like they are tailing their horse up a hill??? Not hardly, they are trying to
drag that poor horse into going even slower. Watch closely and you will see
them do it downhill too. Those Turtle people are too serious of competitors for
me to mess with, so I stay as far ahead of them as I can.
In my first ever LD ride, I decided to ride with
some people I kinda knew. One was an older woman who was recovering from some
sort of fairly serious surgery. She lamented that her out of shape fat quarter
horse would be lucky to finish. As a special favor, the ride manager allowed an
unentered rider ( on an older standard bred) to accompany her in case she
got off in the wilderness and needed assistance if her stitches came unglued or
whatever. So my "rabbits" were an older woman recovering from an
operation and her nurse. I was thinking about possibly getting a Turtle in
my very first ride.. Hah!! In the Central Region, that won't even get you
close. Sick old ladies on out of shape horses aren't even in the running ( or
crawling we should say) for Turtle Awards... We finished in the top 5
for crying out loud. We never had a chance.
One other thing, seriously. Your slow
trotting and walking horse may decide to move out a lot faster during a ride
with other horses around. My horse has a very slow walk when on his own. When
other horses walk faster he keeps up. Nancy Mitts is correct about using
all the different gaits to use different muscles.
Have Fun
Paul N. Sidio
( Who has never won a Turtle, but there is always
next year)
