Petra and I did our first Long Distance Ride at Rockbourne yesterday. We did 26 kms in about 3 hours. The going was pretty stony in places and I was anxious not to bruise Petra's soles. What struck me is how relentless the pace has to be in order to do the time and how much pressure this puts you under to compromise the horse's welfare - in this case just for the sake of a green rosette. This sort of debate (and many more) regularly feature of the IHDG on the Intelligent Horsemanship site.
