Points

[Softrider Saddles <softride@cdsnet.net>]

So many people right now are trying to get as many points as they can.
They seem to have tunnel vision as towards those points. I always
thought that is is supposed to be for the fun of it. In our valley here
we see horses lamed up one after another because the rider wants to go
at a fast trot
constintly. That shoots the tendons out. I think that more people need
to think about what they are doing to their horses before they go out
and do 50 or 100 miles of fast troting. The Calvary
did the type of riding that endur. is supposed to be copying and they
keep their inteveral. So
many minutes of walking so many of jog troting and then so many minutes
of collected cantering.
The Calvary did very little fast troting because of how hard it is on
the horses front legs.
They worked each gait on both sides and very seldom fast troting they
would much more prefer
to do collected cantering in place of trotting. This comes out of The
Calvary Manual of
Horse Management  by Frederick L. Devereux, Jr.  The calvary did
distance riding when
there lives depended on it. Don't lose sight by running for points. The
only points the calvary
got was their lives and their horses lives to carry on.
Rebecca