my musings on LD

[vanhove@unavco.ucar.edu (Teresa Van Hove)]

I have to jump in here in regards to a few statements made about LD's vs.
longer distances.  Angie states that if you are top 5'ing 25's your horse
can do 50's.   Not neccessarily Angie. I have a mare that is a great little
LD horse, she moves at a good working speed, has great recoveries at V.C.s
and has BC'd a few times.  She aint no 50 miler horse - has completed 2 flat
50's in her life.  She just runs out of gas at the longer distances. 
So all  I ask is that I not be looked down on for finishing mid to back 
of the pack on a 50 from someone who has won an LD BC award - (win a 50 BC 
award before you look down on me for being slow.)  I consider my slow 50's
gelding a better endurance horse than my BC winning LD mare. 

Someone stated that LDer's are more likely to run too fast and ruin their
horses.  Well some of them do go too fast, especially on a 4 yr old horse
but many who race those 4 yr olds at LD will race them 50 miles as 5 yr
olds. (And these horses will have soundness problems before a properly
ridden horse reaches his peak) but AERC has some good rules to protect
horses from ignorant or unfeeling riders and I don't want to see the
sport become totally hemmed in with rules to try to offer total protection
to every horse out there. All horse lovers hate to see a horse over-ridden 
but most of us are also indepenent cusses who do endurance to get away from 
nit picky rules arent we?  

The best we can do is be very pro-active in educating newbies that horses
need a good LSD base of a few years before they are ready to race, so
it is better to buy a horse from someone who raises good animals and
starts them slowly than to buy a horse that was winning 50's at five;
and to put a base of moderate paced rides for a year or 2 on your own horse
before you open the throttle.  I like the current AERC system for LD's with
the BC and completion awards and the rider mileage program. I like the
50's and 100's system for completion awards and rider mileage program, in
addition to placement awards, which recognize that not every one rides with 
the goal of winning that day's race. 

nuff said,
Teresa