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| 1978 St Albans heading for the finish line and 5th place overall. |
| 1978 St Albans working out for fittest horse |
| ST ALBANS |
| I selected this ride as typical of the care needed to complete successfully. As you can see in the photos it was a cold, wet, slippery day. I kept him to a steady pace considering the slippery conditons, mindfull of the damage a slip could cause. We were 10th across the line but only the 5th to pass the vet check. All the others fell victum to muscle injouries and overreaches because of the conditions. An Endurance ride is not simply a case of setting your horse to go, and let him take care of the travel arrangements. Let him stumble among the rocks of a rough part of the trail and a vetout with lameness is the usual result. If you really intend to succeed you need to watch every step your horse takes and strive to prevent him from accident from stone bruises by sticking to the best line along the track. I have watched riders let their horse bowl along, to stumble among heavy stones, then flounder into deep sand and back into stones while I have my horse following the smoothest line I can find. Then watch their frustration as they vetted out lame. To do your job properly you will finish the ride more tired than your mount but the prize is successful completion that wasnt left to luck. There's enough things that can go wrong without being careless My dissapointment is far too many "endurance riders" think most if not all their success is due solely to their excellence as riders. Never giving credit to the horse without who they would have never completed the ride. The horse could have done it on its own, I havent seen a rider complete any ride solely on foot yet, in the time the horse can. So forget the ego tripping and give the credit to the horse. If it dident have the ability in the first place all the training and conditioning in the world wouldnt have resulted in success Another problem is inadequate feeding and training to condition the horse to enable it to complete easily, always looking to the next mile. That is a lot easier today with the wealth of litrature available on training and feeding. The enormous feeling of achievement of successfully completing a tough ride is a far greater thrill than I have ever felt after a day at a show. Only when Tamanaco won Supreme Champion Exhibit at Liverpool Show is there any comparison to that incredible feeling of "WE MADE IT". Only this time the achievement was based solely on mine and my horses performance, not on the opinion of someone else. How may times at a show have you wondered what the judge was looking for. That doesnt happen in endurance, where you finish is your responsibility not someone else. |
| 1978 |
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