Thank you, Ranelle. This sounds like good
advice. Regrettably, I'm going to miss yet another ride this
weekend. Wish rides would be done on Sundays, as it is far easier (for me)
to leave on Saturday for a ride, ride Sunday morning, and trailer home Sunday
night and report to work with whatever sleep I can get. :-) I know
that creates all kinds of problems for folks doing 100s, but...
I have always been taught that when you trailer a
horse, it is as if you rode the horse for that amount of time. So, if you are
trailering 5 hours, ask yourself, would you ride this horse 5 or 6 hours, then
ask it to go 50 miles...I don't think I would do it, even with my (now)
seasoned horse personally. If it was 2 hours, sure..as long as I could get
there early enough to give my horse at least an hour rest. Just my personal
opinion...
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From: mikelewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject:
[RC] Trailering, then riding Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:06:22
-0500
I am finding that I frequently am unable to get
out of work in time to get to rides on Friday afternoons or early evenings
as I'd like (5:00 pm is when my boss lets me go and I can't ask to leave
early on a semi-frequent basis). When I was doing LD, I didn't fret
too much about arriving at a ride shortly before it began the day of the
race; however I've moved "up" to 50s (on an experienced horse) and am not
sure arriving the day of a race will be so kind to my horse
now.
If a race is being ridden more as a ride, i.e.
conservatively, is there any reason one could not simply trailer to a ride
the day of the event and give the horse an hour or two to recover from
the trailer ride before starting? Starting late is OK, as I
know my mare will have no trouble completing most rides well within time
(even with a late start). She trailers well and often, and I'd
plan to simply ride these types of rides for completion. What are
folks' thoughts/experiences on this? I'd trailer no more than
5-6 hours before such a ride.
