As if moving out of my house wasn't enough to do right now, Connor and I did our first intro endurance ride last weekend.
I've always wanted to try endurance - I ran competitively myself from third grade through my senior year of college, so human conditioning for long distance stuff is second nature to me. But there seemed like so many mental barriers to entry - time and effort spent conditioning, learning how/when to do vet checks and ride meetings and all that, and the fact that I 0% trust my hard-to-catch and mischievous pony to still be there the next morning if I tied him out or put him in a temporary corral.
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| I have no chill when it comes to bragging about my trailer backing skills, lol. I'm good. |
So when new friend Barb told us about a local endurance ride an hour away that has permanent stabling and three intro options as short as 6 miles, plus is a charity benefit for that trail system, it seemed perfect. Yes, 6 miles is not really endurance, but what with moving out, I've ridden twice in the last month (although others have been riding Connor for me, to be fair) - a trail ride with a vet check was exactly our speed right now, and would help us figure out the mechanics of how the sport works without worrying about the distance.
In short - everything went perfectly. I camped in my truck bed tent and had the best night of sleep I've gotten in a long time thanks to perfect weather. Connor settled right into his stall without a care in the world. And the ride itself was a blast, with two of my barnmates joining me.
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| This setup was so incredibly comfortable, I can't even tell you. |
The only hitch? I forgot my stirrups, which are on my other Dressage saddle (see previous statement about riding twice in the last month!) so Connor and I did the whole 6 miles stirrupless (and blockless, since I took the blocks out of the Patrick a while ago and never looked back).
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| Oops. |
While I knew I'd be a goner if a deer jumped out at us, I also knew I'd be totally fine without them outside of that, and I was. Even on the steep hills, I just changed my balance to accommodate him and Connor dutifully put his hind end underneath him and picked his way up and down like he always does. I really could not love him more.
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| You could describe my not-planned-out color scheme as "10 year old girl" |
He vetted in great, which was to be expected after mostly walking, and the vet had nothing but good things to say about him and said he could've gone back out. I was tempted to choose a longer ride at several moments, but it wasn't fair to Connor and honestly to myself, since I was heading back to get the keys to the rental house right after the ride.
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| It was our first time rolling with Scoots on all fours thanks to Megan K sending us Spicy's old pair of 4 slims, and Connor was so comfortable. It's not like he was uncomfortable without the hinds last time we did these trails, but he was striding out confidently and purposefully the whole ride this time. |
Unfortunately the only slight downer was that we did experience some of that "intro isn't real endurance" attitude I've heard so much about. At the ride meeting the night before, someone asked the organizer how many were going out the next day. "8 in the 50 mile, 12 in the 25 mile, and 19 in intro," she said. I'm not going to try to quote the organizer or the participants, but there was quite a bit of shocked and displeased murmuring and feeble attempts to understand out loud why so many people were doing intro as opposed to the "real" distances. Finally my college professor, who knew we were there to do intro for the first time, shut it down by saying "And it's the most fun way to make a donation to the trail system, don't forget this is a charity ride."
It wasn't the only moment I felt vaguely "Uhhhh why are you here?" vibes when I would have expected "Wow, thanks for coming out, I hope you enjoy our sport enough to do it again!", which is unfortunate. It won't keep me from doing it again, because I did enjoy it, but I almost want to do only intros out of spite now, lol.
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| Ivan the Wonder Pony and his emotional support tree branch. It was his owner's first time trying endurance after wanting to try it her entire life! (She's nearly 70!) |
I do have to say there were also some wonderful people who put up with our stupid questions and general lost-ness when it came to vetting etc, so it wasn't all bad, but still. For a sport that requires so much to get started (time, access to conditioning areas, ability to travel and camp, and with no "lesson programs" to help you dip a toe in), they ought to be a lot more welcoming to anyone who dares sign up, no matter the distance.
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| He came home and promptly fell asleep. |
So all in all, I had a blast and am looking forward to doing it again someday. I'm still so grateful to Barb for giving me the confidence to try it, and for my barnmates for being game to go with me! And with that, Connor gets to check a fourth sport off his bingo card (driving, eventing, Dressage and endurance).
from an organizer's perspective, offering introductory divisions with low barriers to access sounds like a dream scenario for grassroots pipelining and fundraising... bummer that not everybody saw it that way! and double bummer that some folks weren't particularly subtle about it either... still sounds like a blast, tho, and worth doing again!! (except for the 'no stirrups' part omfg haha)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely worth doing again! At least I knew going in that that kind of mindset was possible, so it didn't surprise me.
DeleteSo fun! And well done! I too, have a friend Barb who is going to help me trying endurance :) Interesting they weren't as welcoming as they should have been - that's frustrating. The eventing organization here allows one clinic at intro/starter, then after that you have to sign up for higher levels. Clubs or organizations adding even just that kind of a rule discourages the people who just want to have fun and participate and might be potential supporters one day. Can I suggest working equitation for the bingo card? :)
ReplyDeleteWow, I can't believe that rule at your eventing organization. It just assumes that everyone has the same goal to continually move up, but some people just want to enjoy their horses at a comfortable place. Stuff like that drives me crazy.
DeleteIt's a shame that you experienced that. It seems to be super ride dependent- I've been to quite a few here where the intro rides get the same applause as the 50's do. Overall that is the trend, and the sport needs to adjust. This weekend I did a 50 where only 6 people were entered in the 50, but the LD had a bunch!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it is ride dependent and I hate to call out this ride for it, but yeah. I have heard a lot about the endurance community being really great, but this kind of gatekeeping ignores a lot of realities the sport has to face.
DeleteAs someone who runs trail and ultra marathons, there's similar elitism/snobbery on distance. It's idiotic as far as I'm concerned, why not get more people interested in the sport by offering shorter distances? And for endurance riding, I would LOVE to do a 6-mile ride to dip my toes in to the vetting process and see how my mare handles the atmosphere. Bonus points if it'll help support a trail system!
ReplyDeleteMy brother and sister have just started doing ultras in the last year, and yeah, I know what you mean. On a certain level I get that an "ultra" has to be a certain distance to be ultra at all, but on another, it has such a high barrier to entry in many ways, to gatekeep is to relegate it to fringe status and put off newbies.
DeleteGatekeeping anything is so stupid. Everyone has to start somewhere for everything. How on earth do they expect anyone to continue with something if they don't try it out first? I'm glad it went well despite that for you two!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, could not agree more. Thank you!
DeleteWell done! I’ve always wanted to try distance riding. 6 miles sounds perfect. I hate when people dismiss the lower levels. It’s ridiculous and harmful to the sport.
ReplyDelete6 miles really was perfect! And no time limit, so we could walk the whole thing.
DeleteYou guys went out and did it, that's a huge win in my book! "For a sport that requires so much to get started...", I can unfortunately empathize with why you felt unwelcome. There are some really nice folks in the endurance community, only because of those people that I was even able to try out distance riding as a catch-rider. But there are others, that no matter how I try to rationalize their behavior, it comes across as gatekeeping. It's sad, and it is reality.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was grateful that I follow enough endurance riders online to know going in that it might be a thing and didn't let it deter me. They are really trying to shoot themselves in the foot with that attitude and ignoring the realities of land loss and people moving to cities for jobs and, frankly, high-speed internet.
DeleteAwww, lookit the endurance pony in his Scoots and biothane 🥹
ReplyDeleteHe did look pretty legit, lol. I had so much fun putting that bridle/reins/halter combo together.
DeleteI'm so sorry you had to deal with gate keeping from LDers. It has been a constant problem in the sport, and it is indeed worse in some regions than others. I just ignored it when I was competing consistently. The 50 and 100 milers have a tendency to frown upon the LD riders because "it's not real endurance" though I will say that upon returning to the sport after an 8 year hiatus, the division has toned down quite a bit. Of course now the attitude will be turned towards Intro riders, even though these are starter distances to try to get more people interested in the sport!
ReplyDeleteLast year, AERC proposed running LD and Intro-only rides to accommodate for the ongoing loss of land and resources that the global equestrian community is experiencing. The idea behind it was to make the sport more accessible in areas with less land and for riders who just can't be hauling out every weekend to go condition for extensive miles somewhere hours away. This way there would be more rides overall that would help keep the sport alive. It caused a FUROR in the community, but fortunately it looks like AERC will be proceeding with rides that focus solely on the shorter distances. It's the same problem eventing had that led to the death of the long format: with endless development, there comes a point where event managers just don't have access to the required amount of land to host events involving longer distances regardless of sport. I foresee the same thing happening in endurance. The sport will have to start recognizing the starter levels if it wants to remain in existence.
On that note: welcome to endurance! <3
That is all very interesting, especially the rides with only shorter distances bit. I'm glad they stuck to their guns on it. I mean on one hand, the sport is called ENDURance for a reason, and there's not much to "endure" at the shorter distances, so I do get that they are sort of against the spirit of what it is. But on the other hand, the land loss, migration of people to cities for jobs and high speed internet/away from trail systems, and just the extreme mental barrier to entry are going to kill this sport if they don't. It reminds me a lot of eventing too, not just when the long format was eliminated but also when they added BN and Starter as recognized levels and people thinking eventing doesn't even start til Training. Cool, true, but also, I am personally never going to do T but will cheerfully pop around speed bumps my whole life and my money spends just as well.
DeleteIt's also just so hard to get into unless you know someone (which I finally did meet someone). Especially for a generation with high perfectionist tendencies like Millennials, the idea of walking in cold to a new sport without someone to guide you is pretty terrifying, and there are so many little things that you just have to know or learn the hard way.
I don't know...lots of rambling thoughts but I did have fun, and I hope after all this moving/house selling upheaval is behind me I can do it more.
Great job and sounds like fun (except for the idiots who can't keep their mouth shut :))
ReplyDeletePshhh I bet those 50 and 100 milers wouldn't survive the 6 miles without stirrups! I mean, I'm joking, I would hope that they could. But still, that mindset is terrible. Everyone has to start somewhere and why wouldn't you want to get more people interested in your sport?
ReplyDeleteGlad you and Connor got to try something new, that's so fun! I love your color scheme too!
Glad you guys had a good time, even if the atmosphere wasn't as welcoming as it should have been! I had no idea that endurance could be so clicky until recently.
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun! 6 miles without stirrups is an awesome accomplishment. Too bad there were naysayers. They should be more welcoming if they want their sport to thrive.
ReplyDeleteAs you can imagine, I LOVE this. Extra kudos for doing it with no stirrups. Wow! As for the haters--- endurance riders really need to realize that the only reason our sport continues is because we can now offer shorter distances that draw more people in and get them hooked. 19 in the intro is AWESOME. With only 8 entries in the 50, they better be grateful for the riders doing the shorter distances. No ride can survive long term on 8 entries.
ReplyDelete