Comments on: Riding in sand, High Desert endurance ride, lucky ride #7

By: Robert H. Sydnor, M-AERC

Robert H. Sydnor, M-AERC — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 00:32:55 +0000

Dear Karen:
At some convenient future date, it would be fun to read an essay from you on riding in deep desert sands for a long distance. We assume that it is a lot more work on the shanks of the horse, since he is driving off the rear legs and lifting his legs even higher for each step.
Thanks (in advance) for your essay on riding clean sand that is soft and deep.
With appreciation from Bob in Fair Oaks, California

By: Melinda

Melinda — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:20:19 +0000

Thanks for the input. I am kind of worried about the short time bewteen BH and MT. Ideally I wish it was closer to 6 weeks. Mojave is way to close to 20 MT for my comfort. She just doesn’t have the miles yet to do a bunch of rides in a short time frame (or maybe she does and I’m just being over cautious, hard to tell but I’ve been burned and I’m trying to stay away from the fire!).

Because of how the holidays fall and how DVE is scheduled, I don’t ahve enough vacation time to do any of DVE which is a shame. I had so much fun last year. If desert gold gets cancelled I’ll try to make the warmup ride.

I leaning towards Bar H or FM I guess. Thanks again.

By: kchaton

kchaton — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:55:35 +0000

You could do some or all of DVE and then do a day or two at Mojave. You probably won’t be riding at GRD in January unless you want to pay $500 to ride 50 miles! I usually don’t plan on the January rides anyway due to the logistics of getting there that time of year.

Multiple times I’ve done four days at DVE on the same horse, then done the 20 MT 100. I think that they are still offering the Fire Mt. Horse Excellence award – if you do DVE, 20 MT and then the EHSC 50 your horse gets a blanket.

The Bar H ride would also be a good training ride for doing 20 MT. Depending upon how much time you want to have between the rides.

By: Melinda

Melinda — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:35:21 +0000

I’m trying to decide which january ride to do….I’ve never done any of the PS rides offered in January so I wondered if you had a reccomendation.

I’ve decided that I’m only going to do one day at desert gold. I think doing 2 days, after doing our first 50 back from tevis only 3 weeks prior, is pushing it.

I want to do the 100 at 20 mule team.

So – do I do 2 days of 50′s? A 50 or 75 at GitRDone? Or one of the other 50′s?

I’m looking for a no frills ride in the duck style to get some miles in and test our rediness for a 100 miler.