re: to camp or not

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

I think a lot of the camping replies missed a key point.  This was an LD
rider who stabled her horse the night before a ride.  There are several
rides within a couple hours drive near me and it is pretty standard 
procedure for the LD riders to sleep in their own beds and leave their
horses in their own pastures the night before a ride and check in the
morning of the ride since they don't have to start until 9:00 or so.  
Ride managers often ask LD riders who arrive the night before to wait until 
morning to vet in so that the vets can get through the 100s & 50's before 
it gets dark anyway. In fact a fair number of 50 milers also arrive the 
morning of a ride. I like to camp overnight myself so that I don't have
to worry about getting to the basecamp on time. I sleep in a pickup 
shell and find the munching noises soothing as several others have stated. 
But, I think if a horse is stabled or in a good permanent pen, as opposed 
to being tied to a trailer or in a portable pen there is absolutely nothing 
wrong with getting a motel room.  (And I personally would not like to
leave my horse in many of the really portable pens that are just snapped
together while I slept, no matter how close to the pen I was - I have 
re-fastened too many snaps on camp neighbor's pens.) 

Teresa (near Denver, CO)