RE: What is base?

["Bob Morris" <bobmorris@rmci.net>]

Really how base can we get?

You must include all the work done with a horse from the time it is born
until the present instant! This is base!

You can have a horse that is very fit from running free in the wild but it
has had no training so it "lacks base". You can have a horse that has done
1000 miles but it has no base because it has done those 1000 miles on the
flat and the next ride is in the mountains.

Base is a subjective condition, open to definition, used to confuse the
neophyte, entirely lacking in all horses that fail to perform to the owners
expectations and fully developed in the horse for sale!

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID




-----Original Message-----
From:	DreamWeaver [mailto:karen@chaton.gardnerville.nv.us]
Sent:	Monday, May 03, 1999 8:15 PM
To:	Enduranceriders@onelist.com; ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject:	RC:   What is base?


>So what do you all think?  What is base to you?  I've always thought it was
>all the l.s.d. work we do to get them to their first competition.  Is it
>really all relative to where we currently are in the sport and I wonder if
>my definition will change when I get up to the point of thinking about
>doing my first 100?

A well conditioned horse is a well conditioned horse.  However, 50 mile
rides are excellent conditioning rides for doing 100's.  I would consider
the base my horses have to be all the competition miles they have done over
the last three or four years.  The conditioning rides they did to get ready
for doing those 50's (or multidays or 100's) don't really count because
once you get to where you are doing 50's and longer distance rides then you
really begin to get a fit horse.  There are very few people out there who
could ride a horse for two to three years on just conditioning rides and
end up with a horse as fit as one that had been completing 50's or
multidays during that same time period.  Let's be honest, how many of you
would go out and trot the same distance and time as you do in an actual
event?

I don't think that racing thru 50 mile rides is necessarily the way to
build up a 100 mile horse.  Just because a horse can do a 50 in 4 or 5
hours doesn't mean that same horse will do well over the longer
distance.  I would prefer to take a horse thru some slow 50's, let them be
out on the trail for 11 or 12 hours and learn how to take care of
themselves for the duration.  Not only that but during that time the rider
spends more time on the horses back so you learn what tack works and
doesn't work.  I'm not saying that being able to win or top ten a 50 isn't
a good thing but many people who think they are hot stuff for being able to
race thru a 50 come to a rude awakening when they try a 100.  I've seen
more fail than I've seen succeed.

I think it takes a long time to build up a horse, probably longer than most
people think.  I'll have to let you know when I think mine get there, we're
still putting on that thing called "base".


Happy Trails,

Karen
in NV
& Weaver, 2,580 miles
& Rocky, 1,395.....who just completed the Washoe Valley 100   :+)
www.greatbasin.net/~sportssaddle


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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
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