A question - fun rides

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EstherYoung

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Assuming all things were equal, and you were looking to do a 10-15 mile pleasure/fun ride, and the following three rides were an equal distance from you on the same day, which would you do and why? Also, which would be the one you would be least likely to go to and why?

1) A ride organised by your local hunt
2) A sponsored ride organised by your local bridleways association
3) A ride organised by your local endurance group
 
Probably 1 or 2 to be honest. Actually if I had to pick one it would be 2. Because the few hunt fun-rides ive been on, the jumps have all been huge!! And I wouldnt pick 3 as unless specified I would assume no jumping would be involved, which is no different to me just going for a hack from the yard!
 
On most fun rides jumps are optional, we went on a hunt ride, the route was fantastic and they had a field of jumps if you wanted to jump.
We also went on a riding association ride, again fantastic route not normally open to the public.
We also went on a BRAG ride (my very first) not quite as scenic as the others, but still most enjoyable.
Fun rides are what you make them, if dates allow, go to all three
 
Depends on how fast you want to go.

I should think the hunt ride would include jumps, the endurance ride could be fast and the bridleway ride will be the slowest and most sedate.
 
As the others have said, it depends what you want from the ride...

Personally I'd go for the ride organised by the local bridleways association as I'd think the hunt ride would be more likely to be fast and bigger jumps with other riders being a bit more gung-ho... I like to go on a nice ride, have a few good canters and maybe pop a diddy log if the mood strikes - I don't enjoy being overtaken at speed, especially on a horse I don't know very well yet!

Also I'm unlikely to hunt or do endurance in the near future, but I use bridleways so would make more sense for me to get involved with them out of the three.

Have fun whichever one you go on :)
 
I would be tempted by the one with the best chance for jumping, but would probably support either the bridleways or endurance as they are organisations I am involved in to a degree.

If there were three fun rides like that on the same day I would be well gutted they hadn't organised them on three different weekends then I could have gone to all three!!!:D
 
EstherYoung said:
1) A ride organised by your local hunt
2) A sponsored ride organised by your local bridleways association
3) A ride organised by your local endurance group
Click to expand...

Just to explain that I'm basically not a terribly confident rider; basically a happy hacker (bit long in the tooth!) - am reasonably happy going fast'ish across country. Have two horses (one, on loan: mare - can hot up at events where lots of other horses); other horse is a traddie cob who's OK with just one or two others (his "herd) but can go into fruitloop mode if too many people hooning around.

So....... (1) definately NOT!! Local hunt has organised pleasure rides and they're basically one big hoon. OK for those who're used to it, and are happy with it being one big gallop, but I'd deffo avoid.

(2) Yes possibly. If it was a good cause, plus it would be good to be part of something which was basically keeping the local Rights of Way open, then yes I'd try to support them.

(3) This would be extremely well organised and the route clearly marked, and would be marshalled properly. So yes, would go.

If had to decide between (2) and (3) - gosh! - would probably choose (2), just to support a local bridleways association.
 
EstherYoung said:
Assuming all things were equal, and you were looking to do a 10-15 mile pleasure/fun ride, and the following three rides were an equal distance from you on the same day, which would you do and why? Also, which would be the one you would be least likely to go to and why?

1) A ride organised by your local hunt
2) A sponsored ride organised by your local bridleways association
3) A ride organised by your local endurance group
Click to expand...

I'd be most likely to go to one organised by the hunt - I hunt so I like to support them plus they're always across great countryside with a range of jumps.

Least likely to go to a bridleways one - why pay to use tracks and bridleways I can use for free?
 
I'd most likely choose to go to the one run by the local endurance group, as from past experience, they're very well organised, and you don't tend to get bunched together. I've also found people to be considerate when passing you, and you can keep your own pace and space. I'd be least likely to go to the hunt organsed ride, as I don't jump and like to dictate my own speed, rather than go with what everyone else is doing, which has been my experience in the past. These points suit my horse as well, as he likes his personal space and can get a little fizzy in groups and at speed, so I'd choose the ride that suits us both best.
 
1) Most likely to have jumps.
If I am paying and travelling I want jumps! though I would like to support the other 2, anything including jumps would win.
 
I would go on the hunt one, to support the local hunt, and because I think it would have the most interesting route and some jumps thrown in for good measure.

2nd would come option 3, and 3rd place option 2, basically because we have no such thing here (as no bridleways!). It sounds more likely to be along tracks you would be allowed to ride on anyway, so the only addition being some extra company - if I was involved in the bridelway association, fair enough!
 
1 - no, as I am not really interested in jumping and they would prob be far too speedy.

2- yes deffo, much cheaper, real value for money

3 - yes, very organised, usually very good routes, going.
 
You must all go on very different hunt rides than the ones we have around here from your 'exciting' descriptions.
On ours, you can go as slow or as fast as YOU want; each person can go with whoever they want or even alone, there is no rushing around and feeling you have to keep up with others that may be going faster than you want. Our jumps are entirely optional and we even have different non-jumping routes too if the fences in that spot are unavoidable for some reason. We even have parents walking with lead rein ponies around the whole route so they manage well though they're usually on their knees if they do the full ride of 10 miles!.

Back to OP, I think it would depend on whether I normally had access to the area of the ride as I would like to travel over new land rather than somewhere I can go normally so if the route was through private land and not normally open to the public, if it was a nice area, that's where I'd probably go.
 
I am an EGB member but....

I would not overlook local hunt rides nor Bridleways association rides. EGB rides are usually measured more accurately. Some hunt rides advertise "10 mile" rides but if you take a GPS they are often shorter! Hunt rides do not always have jumps round here (Northumberland) some are lovely hill rides and very good for training for EGB rides. Some Endurance riders do them twice to get a bit of distance.

I too love riding new ground and any of these categories can provide that. I do EGB rides because I can compete and have fun. Most rides have to get permission to run over ground not designated as a bridleway in order to make them a circle so you can see new places.

So from my view there is merit in any of these rides and in our area there are not so many of any of them that they overlap!! So you can do a season covering several lovely rides if you want to.
 
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