Re: Newcomers

["Glenda R. Snodgrass" <grs@theneteffect.com>]

> don't want to be misunderstood.  However, someone posted today about taking
> six months preparation and training to do a 25 and people seem to agree with

It took me six months "preparation" to equip my truck to pull a trailer,
rent one a few times, learn how to pull it and back up and park it (I
didn't know anyone I could trailer with and didn't know anyone who owned a
trailer I could borrow), and to beg borrow & steal camping equipment and
"high tech stuff" like oh, buckets for feed & water, a haynet, a manure
fork, a sleeping bag, stuff like that. <g> If you read my post, the topic
was not physical conditioning of the horse:  I was making the point that
some newbies to endurance are also new to horses in general, and need more
basic info than nutrition advice and how to ride with a HRM.  When I first
signed onto Ridecamp, my entire collection of tack and supplies would fit
into a 10-gal bucket -- if I had owned such a bucket -- and I hadn't been
camping since the age of 12 -- and I had never pulled a trailer, nor even
loaded a horse into a trailer, before in my life.  

Conditioning my horse for the 25 did not take 6 months; he was physically
ready to do a 25 the day I bought him!!  It took me 6 months to figure out
what I needed to haul my horse and camp with him overnight, and to
accumulate the bare necessities to do this -- and to gain the confidence I
needed to strike out and go to a strange place and do this thing all
alone. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  the actual ride is by far the
easiest part of the whole deal, at least in the SE region -- the
"endurance" part is packing, loading, driving and driving and driving,
setting up camp, taking down camp, loading, driving and driving and
driving, unloading, unpacking, and cleaning up.  The ride is EASY!! 

Glenda & Lakota
Mobile, AL
AERC # M18819 & H27310
SE Region