The Little Addict

April 5 2013

We're doing our part, here in a little corner of Owyhee County in Idaho, to increase AERC membership.

It's pretty easy, really.

Nab a horse-crazy little kid, hold her hostage with a bunch of endurance riding nuts, house her with an endurance-riding aunt, lecture her only in the endurance tongue, overwhelm her every night with valiant tales of endurance riding adventures, stick her in the saddles of many endurance (and 1 non-endurance) horses, and point the way down the training trails.

Sarah's aunt Connie is guilty of starting the endurance addiction last year, in the Owyhee Hallowed Weenies ride, where Sarah did her first two endurance rides ever:
http://merritravels.endurance.net/2012/12/the-new-recruit.html


Sarah's back at the Owyhee Spa this week, climbing aboard everything with 4 legs (except the dogs) - from her pal and mentor, trusty old Orlov Trotter Krusty, to the opinionated part-Arabian part-Ego Finneas, to the retired Thoroughbred ex-racehorse Stormy. In her riding lessons with Connie, not all horses are the same, Sarah is learning - some you have to take more charge of than others; some you have to request rather than demand things of; some you have to direct more than command. She's learning to be a Horseman, something that will be valuable on the endurance trails.

Sarah already knows all the local endurance riders, and keeps tabs on them by checking the Ride Results in the monthly Endurance News magazine. She's already picked out all the rides she'd like to attend this year.

When she gets her own endurance horse and her driver's license, she'll not only be logging the miles, but she'll help recruit you too, so watch out!