Bottom line, no matter what discipline one rides,
successfully completing the ride or rides sure does improve one's
horsemanship. If distance riding had not come into my life, I would not be
as good a horseperson as I am today. That doesn't mean I can't improve,
but I would not have near the knowledge that floats in my brain. If we
want to keep our trails, I figure all of us, including those slow pleasure
riders, better stick together.
This past weekend I did not go to a ride.
Instead I went into the gorgeous Pigeon River country in northern Michigan with
other distance riders as well as pleasure riders. We rode 4 days, explored
every day, and we mostly walked. It was hard but not as hard as I thought
it would be. We saw elk (I didn't), saw elk scrapes, saw elk wallows, saw
bear signs, got into arguments while using the GPS units as to what direction we
needed to go to get back to camp, ate like pigs with meals cooked over an open
fire, told ghost stories (the dogman being one of them), had squirt gun fights,
watched the kids and Walt (over 40) stand on their horses, and just had a good
time. The result? We all want to do this again. If you have
never eaten a dump cake made in a dutch oven over an open fire, you don't know
what you are missing. I didn't even eat ice cream and I gained
weight! Jeanie
