25, 50 & 100 Just do it!

[Marinera <Marinera@aol.com>]

I was going to keep quiet for awhile, but find it too hard.  First of all, if
we all spend as much time on ridecamp as I do, we'll never get around to
training our horses for any length and that will be the end of endurance
riding!!

I would like to encourage riders to be less afraid of moving up to the longer
rides.  Hundreds of riders have started out with hundred mile ride as the
first effort.  Honest, that is a fact.  A 50 is not twice as tough as a 25, a
hundred is not twice as tough as a 50.  You can do it.  If you are in over
your head, pull at the next vet check. So no harm done except maybe to your
ego, but not the horse. At least then you'll know what you and your horse can
do. Every experienced rider knows that a fast 50 is harder on a horse than an
average 100. So just keep your head screwed on right and at least try.
I would like to add my voice to those of Kim Fue, Joe Long, Bob Morris Ramey,
Peticolas-Stroud, Ann Blankenship, Truman Prevatt, Terry Wooley-Howes, Glenda
Snodgrass, Peggy Norton and many others. Since there are many new members of
ridecamp, and at the risk of being redundant, I am re-posting something I sent
to ridecamp over a year ago.  I still feel the same way. 
Julie Suhr

Originally posted in Jan. 1997.
Maybe some background on limited distance rides is in order. Endurance riding
was flourishing before the advent of 25 LD rides and there are hundreds of
people out there who have never done a limited distance ride.    Nobody
fought the concept  of limited distance rides more than I did originally and
few are in favor of it as much as I am now.  My antagonism was that when I
started endurance riding there was one ride only..the Tevis Cup Ride.  There
was no one to go to for advice except Wendell Robie who said "keep them lean
and have a wet saddle blanket in the barn at night".  And so I overrode and
underfed.  There were no electrolytes, fanny packs, heart monitors or other
of the accouterments that we consider so necessary today and which I depend
on totally.  The pulse requirement was 72. Both the horse and I sank
miserably at the first vet check on our maiden voyage.  I learned that the
backbone of the Sierra was more formidable than the golf course I trained
around.  I learned that I was not fit and I learned that I was riding the
wrong breed.  Help came in the form of a horse loaned to me that lived at the
end of the  Tevis trail, was trained on the trail and it was a walk in the
park.  And I was hooked.  Hooked to the point where  I could not wait a whole
year for the Tevis Ride to come back (still the only ride, remember).  And so
in 1967 I started the Castle Rock Challenge Ride..the oldest 50 miler in the
U.S.  The Auburn people poo pooed a little ride of fifty miles, but I was
trying to draw on a local group and they simply were not as turned on as I by
the challenge of a 100 miler.   Well, as time went on, many people for
various reasons did not want to go fifty miles, but they wanted to be
endurance riders so the concept of 25 milers arrived upon the scene. For
those of us who  egos were for whatever reason somehow tied up with being
"endurance " riders, the thought of others coming along and diluting our
sport was awful. Some ride managers were convinced that they could not make
ends meet without the added income from LD riders.  And so LD rides began to
be incorporated into the 50 and 100 mile events, but ONLY after it was
written in the AERC Handbook "that an endurance ride by definition, is not
less than 50 miles".  Our fragile egos were preserved and less ambitious
riders had the shorter trail to fulfill their needs.  As time went on, I
became a fan of LD rides.   I saw the benefits for young new horses, the
introduction to a sport for new riders who could make a personal decision as
to whether to set their goals on higher mileage, stay where they were or
decide it wasn't for them anyway.  In addition, it did bail some rides out
financially.  
With the risk of alienating some, which I regret, 25 miles does not require a
tremendous amount of training and its participants  have not really proven a
whole lot.  I can swim, but I am not an Olympic swimmer.  I can jog, but I am
not a marathon runner.  I do not think this makes me a lesser person.  It
means that in these particular fields I am not a shining star.  But I can
ride fifty or a hundred miles and this does make me an endurance rider.  It
means that I have done my home work and I have had personal aspirations.
 There is another category of riders.... those who because of personal
problems, physical disabilities, time restraints or other reasons cannot opt
for the longer distances but they love their horses, they love the trails,
they want to be a part of the whole scene. And so we have 25 milers and
everyone should be happy.  I realize that I, sooner than 99 percent of the
people in this sport, will be forced to cut back to 25 milers.  (I just seem
to pre-date most of the people riding).  When that time comes, I hope that
God will give me the grace to accept the fact that I am no longer an
endurance rider, I am an ex-endurance rider.  (Hey, if Joe Montana can be an
ex-football player, I guess I can be an ex-endurance rider).  I watched my
wonderful Gazal's dam at age 25 do her first LD ride with an 8 year old on
her back. That didn't make  either of them an endurance horse or an endurance
rider, but, boy, were we proud. One of the best horseman I have ever known,
(now gone) could not have ridden 25 miles due to a disability.  My admiration
for
him was greater than for any of my 100 mile cohorts.  No, he was  not an
endurance rider in my book but he ranks higher in my mind than any that are.
So let's each find our place in the sun and be happy that we can be out there
at all..regardless of our chosen distance.