Most of the old-timers in this sport remember Maggy Price very well. She was an extraordinary person, rider and horse breeder who served as a board member and AERC president. She had many well thought-out sayings and stories and, with her Southern charm and accent, most could listen to her talk for hours.

One of the things I saw her do before starting an extremely rocky ride was pick up a rock and throw it over her shoulder. She claimed that rock had her horse's name on it and she was going to get it off the trail before it got her off the trail. She may not be the first person to come up with the story about the rock but she was the first person I ever heard say it and I have remembered it ever since.

Most endurance riders put an innumerable amount of time, effort, money and training to prepare horses for endurance events but, even when we feel like everything is perfect, a rock (or whatever) can come along and prevent us from the goal of completing a ride. It should not be shameful to be pulled from a ride or even having your horse treated (unless you have disregarded your horse's welfare and have over-ridden the horse for your own satisfaction).

Horses are not machines. Each ride we find out a little more about them that will help us to understand their strengths and weaknesses. One of the challenges of endurance riding is reading your horse. Often a horse and rider will become a great team and you can see they are riding as "one" down the trail and even in the vet checks. They are in tune with each other and everyone around that team can see it.

Things can still go wrong but riders who are in tune with their horse will know it before the vets or anyone else sees anything wrong. Everyone else around them will tell them their horse looks great but they just know something just isn't right and will pull out of the competition for their horse's safety.

When everything is going perfectly, endurance rides are so much fun but when we hit a bump in the road that is really when our own personal endurance has to kick in. It is hard sitting on the sidelines while trying to get your horse over a lameness problem or working through your horse's metabolic situation. We often think we are the only rider out there having these kinds of problems but you are not alone, most of us have been there.

During these times come on out to the endurance rides and visit with the riders and help the ride managers. They will love you for it. They may even have some great advice for you. This will help the time go by faster and you will be back on the endurance trail before you know it.

Shortly after I heard Maggy tell the rock story, I went to an endurance ride where ride management went out and collected rocks off the trail and then painted each horse's name that was entered in the ride on the different rocks. They passed them out before the start of the ride and told the riders that the trail was cleared for their completion since their horse's rock was now off the trail.

Wouldn't it be great if it were that easy, never to have that rock find a way to bruise our horse's foot or to make him take a misstep and twist his ankle? I guess if that took care of all our problems we would all be out throwing rocks over our shoulder before each ride.