Well, I don’t know if this is suitable for your audience, however, before I did the 240 MI Shore to Shore trail ride, in 2015, an endurance rider said, “Don’t change your underwear.” She didn’t mean wear the same underwear each day, she meant don’t buy a new kind or style or band of underwear before a multi-day ride. Whatever you wear daily riding is what you should use. She continued to tell a hilarious story of a first time endurance rider who begged her for use of her knife on the second day of the ride they were on --the new rider was desperate for a knife. Friend gave her the one she carried and the woman proceeded to cut off her thong underwear --guess it was rubbing in the wrong place. But time was of the essence and to stop and remove boots, breeches, and thong would have taken far longer than a strategic slash or two with a knife.
Foxglove, great story! I don’t know how folks tolerate thong underwear, but each to their own.
@goodhors -thongs are not for me either! Oldest daughter was riding a dressage test in the summer when coats were forgiven. She wore under her white breeches a purple thong --later when she saw the photos, she asked why I didn’t tell her her purple underwear was evident under her white breeches. To be honest, I hadn’t noticed!
Second thong story --when the style first came out, I was teaching HS senior lit. A vivacious girl enthusiastically rose quickly from her desk chair to hand in a paper causing the chair to crash backwards (a time with hard wood floors in classrooms and metal chairs).
I asked her if she was ok --she replied, “Yeah, I caught my thong on the the chair.” (think low slung jeans and high riding thongs).
“Goodness,” I replied, “Is your foot hurt?”
I , of course, thought “thong” was a euphemism for flip-flop shoe.
Huge laugh from the students --and a realization that I was out of the loop for teen-speak!
Possibly (although the idea of being the one in front of the camera instead of behind the camera gives my slight heart palpitations haha)
I will at least do document of all the questions and answers and post that
Yes, that will definitely be covered especially because in the northeast region where I am, the two are very closely related and most people do both
I hear ya! 
I’m sorry that you had that experience!
If the person who lead the ride is on the official AERC mentor list, can you please PM their name?
I wish you were close to me, I’d be happy to mentor you!
Thank you- yes, gear seems to be a question that is frequently brought up and I have that on the list for sure as well as bringing some of my endurance tack (which is super different for all 5 of the horses that I have compete) so people can see it in person
If this is an in person event have take home lists/documents for people.
This will help beginners to the sport to remember the basics.
A simple list of what they will need to start out or a good conditioning schedule will likely make at least one person happy.
Edit to add - if nothing else, have a handout with the names of the organizations and their websites, so people end up in the right place when they go online.
As someone who does mostly jumping disciplines, here’s the biggest questions I’ve mulled over when daydreaming of trying distance sports:
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what ground skills should my horse have? It seems to me that standing quietly at the trailer is essential, and respecting any pen setup one might choose for camping. Tying, obviously. But what other non-riding skills should someone start installing on their horse if they’re considering trying competitive trail or endurance? Let’s assume the horse knows NOTHING, since I feel that western riders tend to install different skills than English, beyond the typical individual differences.
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legal and/or illegal gear and supps/meds. Omeprazole is apparently banned? Even if you don’t go in depth, a brief overview and instructions on where to access that information is helpful. I think people get used to their own discipline’s rules and may not consider that those standards are NOT universal!
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maybe some way to connect with more experienced people willing to answer questions and talk about the details individually (like the unspoken rules of the trail and campsites, how to volunteer or shadow someone, etc). Having someone to coach you through an event is almost essential, though not everyone is good at this
Just some ideas from a person who watches a few Instagram accounts of endurance riders and thinks it looks freaking fun
I may very briefly touch on Competitive Trail Driving since it is offered by several ECTRA rides and I’ve done a few myself now. Pretty much everyone I know that does the competitive trail drives (very different from marathon as far as I can tell) also does ridden endurance with the same horses.
(as an aside I did notice when I volunteered as an obstacle judge for the CDE at Fair Hill where we were the last obstacle, at lot of the horses were very tired by the end and that they probably needed more conditioning work before tackling all of our hills)
Thank you- yes, going over camping and the vetting processes are definitely on my list as well.
haha- Yes that is a big thing in all of the endurance sports I do whether I’m riding or running- never try anything for the first time on race day, whether its tack or clothes or nutrition. And yet people always try to do it anyway lol
Great questions thank you!
I’ll answer the Omeprazole really quick because this is one that comes up a lot. It is legal at the preventative dose (basically the 1/4 tube per day of Ulcergard) but not legal at the treatment dose (full tube). The reasoning behind this is that AERC recognizes prevention is important and that horses coming to rides are under the stress of trailering etc. but if a horse currently HAS ulcers and needs to be on the treatment dose, they should not be subject to traveling and competing.
That is part of the plan- I have a local shop that will be providing bags that I’m going to fill with some literature and some goodies as well as a thumb drive with a lot of info from the endurance 101 clinics that AERC offers
I can’t think of any specific questions, but like a few others I’m definitely curious about the feasibility of casually doing shorter endurance rides while focusing on other disciplines. And also, just how to get started.
And seeing that you’re in Maryland, I’d love to know where you’re doing the Q&A night. Schedule permitting and if it’s not too far, I’d love to come out and hear some of the answers in person (feel free to PM)
It can definitely be done as not the sole focus.
I will PM you the info
These are all great questions! All I would add is that endurance riding is another sport you can do with your horse. My big Hanoverian was used for dressage and even gymkana. He also loved the trails. If you have a horse you love and they are sound and willing, go ahead and condition and enter some rides! You don’t need to buy a specific horse to compete. Rides are wonderful ways to see places you might not ordinarily get to see, meet up with old friends and make new ones, and spend time with a horse you love. What more is there?
As an anxious person who one day would like to do a long distance ride, I would most want to know about the trailering situation.
For example, if we park the trailer and then do the ride. How do we get back to the trailer? Do we need a non-riding person with us to go get it at the end?
Nope- you can 100% do it by yourself. Most of the time you park at what is generally referred to as ride camp or base camp. There are a couple of different ways that rides can work. The one that is most common in my region is that the start, the finish and all of the vet checks are in ride camp. For example you are riding a 50 miler- you do a 20 mile loop and come back to camp (where you trailer is), vet, repeat the 20 mile loop, come back to camp, then do a 10 mile loop and come back to the finish at camp.
Sometimes the rides are one big loop- Old Dominion in Virginia is a good example. This means that your start and your finish are both at ride camp where your trailer is but the vet checks are “away” in other locations. In this case, if you have help (called crew) they can take anything you need and meet you at the away vet checks. If you are by yourself, you pack whatever you might need and ride management will take it there and back for you. Often ride management will also provide some of the things necessary for away checks like hay and grain so they cut down on the amount of stuff everyone needs to cart around. If you are at an away vet check and the vets pull your horse, ride management will trailer your horse back to camp for you
A few rides like Tevis or Michigan Shore to Shore, start and end at different places and you would need someone to move you trailer. These type of rides are generally the exception rather than the rule
Hope this all makes sense
