My goal for this ride (only our second together, the horse has done many
50's) was to have him listen and obey, rather than run away for 25 miles,
like he did on our first ride! So we started dead last, 20 minutes late. I
spent the first 2 miles asking for a walk, and getting jigs and jogs along
with a little backtalk. Finally, about 1/3 of the way up a long grade, he
walked!!!! Hooray!!!! It was really the high point of the ride for me!
For the next 8 or so miles, he was great! He was listening to my hands and
seat, and was moving out really well. We passed several horses and he was
able to keep it together and listen even while we were catching up to them.
Alas, the last three miles into camp was a "shared" trail with all the other
rides (25's, 50's and 75's). He had already gotten a little strong as I
think that he knew that we were heading back to camp. Then we started
getting passed by other riders, and he totally lost it. He wanted to race
back to camp, and catch those horses, and I was totally screwing up his
ride!!! Since he wasn't listening to my hands and seat, I decided to get
off and walk hand walk him the last mile and 1/2.
This turned out to be really awful! We ended up with him doing circles
around me for the entire distance, while I tried to keep him out of the way
of the riders that were trying to pass us. Several kind people checked to
see if I needed help, so I must have had a pretty desperate look on my face.
I was so tired, that by the time I was able to see the camp, I just wanted
to let him go and run his fool head into camp alone. I did manage to tough
it out though; I didn't want him to think that he could get away with being
such a pinhead.
He breezed through the P&R and the vet check. Our out time came up, I
hadn't recovered enough to even check his feet. Since my (current) first
rule of endurance riding is, "It must be fun.", I decided to call it a day.
I knew that he would fight me for the first 2 miles of the second loop, and
I just didn't have enough energy to win the fight the second time. I felt
like we made some progress in his "listening", and I know now that we have
to work on being passed by others.
Many thanks to Russ H. for the trailer ride, and also for some help at camp!
Nancy Churchill nancyc@nwlink.com Redmond, WA