Re: RC: riding just before a competition

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/11/99 9:29:56 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
casbeer@molalla.net writes:

<< Hi all, I'm fairly new at all this, it's my first year doing 50's.  
 My mentors (riding buddies with years of experience) do not ride 
 their horses for a week before a competition, but do warm them up 
 before the ride.  Then I see about half the competitors riding on 
 Friday night, some of them for quite a while. >>

One does not want to "condition" during the week before the ride, but I would 
not lay off, either.  A complete lay-off can lead to problems like tying up.  
What has worked well for me has been a walk-jog session for 30 to 45 minutes 
on Tuesday and Thursday before a Saturday competition.

As for the Friday afternoon/evening ride around camp--I could never see much 
point in it, and would rather have my horse eating, but the poster who made 
the comment about familiarizing the horse with the last stretch of trail 
makes a good point.  I'd be more apt to ride in camp on Friday on a green 
horse that needed familiarization with the public setting than with an old 
campaigner.  I've never found my older horses to have the slightest doubt 
where camp is, even if they've never been to that particular ride 
before--they have a good sense of direction and know the routine, so are not 
put off by unfamiliar trails.  If it was a 100 that was not familiar and had 
a very technical trail that I anticipated doing in the dark, I might go look 
at a bit of it, but on the other hand, if one is going to do a significant 
amount of it in the dark, they likely need the time to eat a lot worse than 
they need a look at the trail.

Heidi


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