[RC] Pulls at OK ride - Kathleen A. CrothersSomeone wanted to know why so many pulled at the Ok ride in June. I can't say for most but imagine the twisty trail and uneven terrain got some. I only rode part of the first loop when my horse pulled off the easyboot as well as his shoe and a good part of his hoof wall early in the ride. He just wasn't paying attention like he should have been and tripped over a root or rock. With a lot of horses on the narrow twisty trail it was hard to get them to watch out and not want to be in the other horse's tail. A lot of the non finishers were overtime. I think a lot of new riders entered the 50 in hopes of getting a 50 in to qualify for the Sante Fe Horse Ride. I helped at the vet check after I pulled and some riders there didn't have a clue what was going on even though ride management gave a good beginning rider talk on Friday night and handed out a packets with very useful information to the new riders. I also think some riders might have underestimated the humid weather since it felt so cool to the riders starting out on the ride but the humidity was very high. Also some of the horses had been going hard to rides every other weekend since Feb. so that might have been a factor in the lameness pulls. I also heard from a very experienced rider that she liked the trail a lot and I also liked what I rode of it. I plan to go back next year to this ride and hope I get to ride all of the trail this time. I don't think the ride was all that difficult and from most who rode it said they enjoyed it as well. Normally this ride wouldn't have had over 50 starters on the 50 but since a ride in TX two weeks before was cancelled the ride picked up a lot of TX riders that normally would have done the two day ride in TX instead. My young horse didn't have any problem completing the 25 and he was ridden by a friend of mine and this was the first time anyone except me had ridden him on a ride and it was only his 3rd ride. Happy Trails, Kathy =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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