Newbie to Endurance.

[MBlanchrd@aol.com]

Peggy,

  Don't be afraid to try endurance. You may be a newbie..but everyone was a
newbie, once. THe very worse thing that can happen is that you find that you
don't like it. 

Even so, let me tell you a secret about endurance riders in general, and
ridecamp posters in particular...no one at an endurance ride cares about the
human. You may come in with a broken leg and a temp of 104 degrees, and you're
going to have to look hard for someone to give you so much as a bandaid. (Ever
notice there's never an MD at a ride? Unless he or she's competing..)) 
 But if your horse is breathing hard or has a high pulse, he's got a
veterinarian right there, free of charge, people standing by with buckets,
blankets, food,.............you have to drag yourself to the portapotty, you
eat peanut butter sandwiches if you were smart enough to make them before
hand, while your horse is swamped with an adoring crew of human slaves,
praising the horse for eating and drinking, counting heart rate and breaths,
watching every twitch in his little horsey hide.

If ridecamp seems to be a bunch of meanies sniping at each other, if it seems
to be nothing but flame wars, well, it can be. . You may see Tom and Susan
sword fighting, trading polite insults as they teach us ALL as well as each
other. It may seem intimidating and mean spirited. But what ridecamp is,
amidst all the blood and thunder, is a bunch of people who care passionately
about their sport and their horses., (and yet, the neat thing about ridecamp
is, once you've been on it awhile, you make friends on it that later you meet
in person at a ride..so you're not "a stranger"...)

The secret of endurance riders is it's a lot like a big family reunion. We
have our idiots and our Einsteins. We  exchange hellos and opinions, jump up
and down when we KNOW we're right and you're wrong, occasionally spit at each
other, take sides, fight, argue, laugh, cry, console, help, teach, train,
trade recipes and jokes........we park too close to each other, too far from
the portapotty, let our dogs run loose and our kids run wild. Every
RideManager is an idiot, as is the vet and so is everybody else except us. My
farrier is better than yours and no I will not give you his name.  My horse is
perfectly trained, yours must have just been roped off the range so recently
it's mustang tattoo is still fresh. My saddle is better than yours, I use
prettier biothane, my trailer is better and my horse is more Arabian than
yours. Does it sound like a bunch of kids getting together? It is......

We all have soapboxes and step up on them from time to time. I, especially,
have been known to step up on mine and stick both my feet in my mouth at the
same time, a feat that enables me to kick myself in the head when I realize
what I just said..... I get flamed for it, sometimes, and I get kudos and me
too's, too. Does it hurt? 
Yeah, sometimes, but I learn. So do the others. There are a few folks out
there that really are assholes...though they don't show up too often.....and
there's even MORE folks out there who are willing to say, Michelle, you twit,
you are wrong and this is why. And there's some people out there who will help
you, teach you, be your friend, and give unhesitatingly. Tell me another sport
where the competition tells each other the secrets they use to win.

Does this sound like real life? That's what endurance is. It's a competition
between a bunch of people who would rather ride than walk and get there ahead
of you. Endurance riders are, by their very nature, "opinionated, highly
intelligent and loners". (I give credit to someone else..I cannot remember her
name..this is her quote, and it's a true one..)
Why else would they choose a sport like riding a horse 100 miles, when they
could be sitting on their couch, drinking a cool brew and watching the
Seachickens get beat yet again?? (Seattle Seahawks, for the uninitiated..)

But I can tell you, Peggy, that when the chips are down, endurance riders are
a bunch of people who will stop what they're doing and help. At the end of the
ride you hear laughing and talking and "I was there" talk. If you need an
opinion on what to buy, be it trailer, truck, saddle, shoes, tack, god help
me, even underpants and bras, someone in Ridecamp will have an opinion and
experience to back it up. If you want to learn about conditioning your horse,
sit around and listen and hear a million different opinions. If you want to
know how to do just about anything endurance related, watch. If you want to
laugh until you wet your pants, be an endurance rider. (don't wet them while
in the saddle, though......)

 Funny thing, you don't even have to ride to enjoy yourself. My horse is 22
years old and is no longer "a contender"..but I go to the rides to work my
little sideline of equine massage and learn how to crew.
 My husband goes along to watch and learn how to compete...because  while I
don't have a competitive bone in my body, he does. He's horse hunting at the
moment, because 6"3 men just don't fit quite right on 15 hand Arabians.(and
his 16 hand appaloosa doesn't have the feet for a ride..)
 I suppose this makes us "wannabes"...but someday, at least my husband will no
longer be a wannabe but a "am one". Me...I massage horses..and do a damn good
job, and endurance riders appreciate what massage can do for a horse, like no
other horse sport.

Your age of 50 doesn't matter. Neither does your weight, (well, it does, but
no one gives a hooty what you weigh in relation to how you look...only in what
division it puts you in!!).  Tack? I'm told some people have been known to
compete bareback. Who cares? One time, on ridecamp, the claim was that a rider
could ride buck naked through ridecamp, and the only thing the other campers
would notice was the color of the horse.......

. If nothing else..if you do ten miles or a hundred, you will enjoy it.  It
ultimately all boils down to you and your horse. Endurance riding gives you a
reason to ride.
I think a vignette I witnessed a couple years ago puts it all into
perspective. I was working the Bandera ride in Texas. A woman voluntarily
pulled her horse at a vet check after only 25 miles, even though she'd signed
up for a 50. As she walked her horse backed to her camp, her horse jigged and
pranced and was VERY UNHAPPY about being pulled. The woman was saying "I KNOW
you want to keep going! You went too fast! You idiot, you went like a rocket!
You wouldn't listen, no, not you!! You think you can do 50, but you're not
ready yet!!"  

Peggy, all this was directed to her horse, who understood completely what she
was saying. I don't think she even knew I was there, hearing the whole thing,
and I doubt she would have given a rip if she did. 
 She was angry at her horse, NOT because she decided to pull him, , but
because he was so willing to go until he hurt himself.  This is what makes
endurance riding so great. The team...human and horse, together, attempting to
do something great. The brains of the rider and the heart of the horse. That's
endurance.

Michelle and Jordan, the wonder horse
Dale and soft footed Smoke


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