I had to chuckle at Angie’s comments about the LD
riders/newbies and the potential lack of trail etiquette!
At least with newbies it’s easier to try to explain to
them that they need to show some manners since most of them want to learn.
What’s tough is when it’s experienced endurance riders being
rude! We were at a 3 day ride this past weekend and rode for a while with
a guy and 2 women where the guy had a little experience and the women were new
to endurance (we rode the LD) and he was doing a fantastic job explaining to
them how to behave at water crossings and other good etiquette behavior.
Halfway through the second day we had an extremely
experienced endurance rider who normally rides 50’s or more that was on
the LD. She picked up a newbie and did a terrible job setting an
example. Four of us were in front of them for most of the first loop and
then at a perfect stream to drink from about 4 miles from camp, we had arranged
our 4 horses so they could all drink. And then this woman came blasting
up and told us to get out of the way because they weren’t going to drink
and went galloping off. None of our horses were able to continue drinking
after that. Then we were catching up a bit when they were going through a
gate. They saw us, and jumped back on without closing the gate and
galloped off again.
I think I’ve seen the worst displays of manners from
people who normally ride 50’s when they are riding LD than any other
circumstance.
