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RE: [RC] Myths - David LeBlancTruman said: For some reason we don't seem to have the "new riders running the snot out of their ill conditioned horses in LD's" in the SE. I expect the same is true for the NW, CT and MW. We seem to often have experienced riders running the snot out of well conditioned horses with generally good results. The assumption that you have beginners in LD may not hold up very well. Every now and then, you'll sometimes see someone new way up front when their horse isn't ready, and they typically get a wake-up call when the BC award is given out, and they got lowest points with worst vet score. The BC exam is really good for rider education. I was the one who looked at winning ride speeds, and on average for rides with both LD and 50, the 50's went 15% faster - that's to say if the 25 was won at 10 mph, the 50 would be won at 11.5 mph. There were exceptions, but that was the average over hundreds of rides. We have a very active team competition in PNER, and at least 3 riders across the line in any distance on the same day counts for points. The team that won last year did a LOT of LD, mostly because they could put their experienced 50+ mile horses in the LD, come in way up front, and have a very low pull rate. They'd also usually have 3 in the 50. Since we give top-10 points for LD, you get 2-3 in the top-10 and it adds up, especially if you have a lot of 30's. Same horse may not have been top-10 in a 50. As an aside, the same phenomena led to us having 22 (!!!) entrants in a 2-day 100 this year, but I don't think it worked out too well for most - it was fairly steep, and between 95 and 100 each day. Only about 2/3 finished - Laser and I managed it, but were nearly last. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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