I was given my 1st horse at the age
of 39 that was an unbroke 3 y.o. Arabian filly that I was stupid and green
enough to break her to ride myself. I was always taking lessons on other
horses just to keep one step ahead of her, but even that wasn't the brightest
idea! Anyway, I bred her and traded my filly to my ex and got a great
gelding to ride. I trail rode him for a few years and then got the
endurance bug. I should look up what year I started endurance (way over 40
y.o, by that time).
My mare Beamer was too emotional for me to
want to do endurance, so I sent her back to be a brood mare in my ex's
place. She's now has a good mind for endurance but now she's 17
y.o.! She's done a LD and I started her on another LD with her
behaving except I put on the Easyboot wrong. Someone from the Parelli club
(she's a grandma twice over) ode her at Mt. Diablo, fell in love with
her and I am in the process of selling her Beamer's grandson.
She's never done endurance, but is buying this gelding to start to do endurance
with so you are in good company.
Barbara, we should schedule a ride together soon
once I get rid of the bronchial stuff. I decided that Drako has been
behaving a lot better, and I am going to see if I can leg him up for endurance
without him killing me in the process. I tried to do a 50 on Beau
last year, and I'm afraid that he's just going to have to be retired or
just do LD's. His crooked drive train is catching up with him in his
older age. I too am suffering from lack of will to do endurance,
espcially since I can't ride trusty Beau. Maybe we could egg each other on
to get back into the saddle again. My barn is full of endurance wannabe's
that condition at a snails pace and I need real, experienced endurance
riders to get my juices going! I occassionally get sucked into doing
LD's with a wannabe, but it doesn't help my endurance will that much. I
hate biting my tongue all the time.
Oh, NOOOOOO! At 40, I was the strongest I have
ever been. At 40, I could out-hike and out-backpack my 19 and 17 year
old daughters. My mother used to tell me she never got her full strength
until she was 40. I was still pretty strong at backpacking at
59.
I'd still be competing on the endurance trail if my
up and coming horse hadn't managed to get bit by a rattlesnake and has been
out of competition since 2001. I have a nice horse now, and the bitten
one may be 100% sound now, but it's been hard getting back into the desire to
compete. The fire has just died down. Anyone have bright ideas on
how to get it back?
