Endurance Introspection
"To Finish Is To Win"About the Site
Authored by Patti Carey (formerly Patti Stedman), Endurance Introspection is a website for endurance riders, aspiring endurance riders and other sport horse enthusiasts interested in the cross-training aspect of endurance conditioning and training for horses. Patti’s vision for the website is to provide a place for endurance riding enthusiasts interested in the philosophies, training, conditioning strategies and life lessons learned during the act of enduring.
Patti is an AERC (American Endurance Ride Conference) endurance competitor/Ride Manager/former BoD member who truly embraces the sport’s motto of “To Finish Is To Win”.
About Patti
Patti was raised in rural Western New York. She started riding at the age of seven and eventually showing in various disciplines, until she discovered dressage (the art of riding and training a horse in a manner that develops obedience, flexibility, and balance.) in her late teens. She attended Cornell University and received her BS in Animal Science.
While she taught and trained professionally for a few years, it became apparent that a career outside of horses allowed more financial security (and that wackily practical health insurance), so her love of teaching took her in the direction of occupational safety and environmental compliance. She owns two successful businesses, one providing live training and consulting, and the other providing web-based safety training.
Patti began to compete in endurance rides in the mid 1990s. A couple of decades and a few thousand miles of competition later, she has acted as a Ride Manager for the Allegany Shut Up and Ride and was formerly a member of the AERC Board of Directors, Ride Managers’ Committee, and Education Committee. She developed materials for and insurance coverage for AERC Endurance 101 Clinics and has taught dozens of clinics, and encourages others to do the same to give riders new to our sport the skills needed to succeed and a sense of community with other local endurance riders and mentors.
Her passion for sharing her sport led her to creating a web-based course for new and aspiring endurance riders, Endurance Essentials, which can be found at horselearningonline.com
Patti loves combining the disciplines of endurance and dressage, and observing and writing about the inside world of endurance riding competition. Patti currently lives in rural South Carolina, with her horses, dogs, cats and various vermin.
Header photo by Carien Schippers @imagequine
Casting A Bigger Net
Reprinted from Endurance News, April 2013, monthly publication of the American Endurance Ride Conference, www.aerc.org, 866-271-2372 If you’ve been paying attention at all in the last year, or occasionally emerge from your basement to check in with the...
What makes for a great ride briefing?
Reprinted from Endurance News, December 2007 Ride Managers’ Column, monthly publication of the American Endurance Ride Conference, www.aerc.org, 866-271-2372 The AERC Ride Managers' online forum members were discussing ride briefings recently, contributing what it is...
Are you ready for Murphy and his law?
Reprinted from Endurance News, July 2007, Ride Managers’ Column, monthly publication of the American Endurance Ride Conference, www.aerc.org, 866-271-2372 Ah, Murphy's Law. If something can go wrong, it will. Take a big bunch of horses and riders, a little speed, add...
Finally … Our Decade Team Interview!
http://enduranceridestuff.com/aercdecadeteams/2012/02/patti-stedman-breezewood-nevarre/
The jigsaw puzzle pieces are falling in place … (VT 100 Report — long overdue)
… but some times it takes a little time and introspection to see the pattern in the big picture that the puzzle creates. Sit back with a cup of joe, boys and girls, this is gonna be a long one. I hesitated to write about my VT 100 experience back in mid-July, largely...
Hocks and appetite intrinsically linked? Who knew?
Following the Vermont 100 and Sarge’s non-completion, I was quickly formulating an action plan. This is just what I do. Analytical to a fault. Two 100 mile ride attempts with Sarge. One pull as a result of just plain bad luck. Second pull from an odd lameness that...
On family and grieving and learning that it is not at all about me.
This will be an unusual blog post for me. It has nothing to do with horses or endurance or riding. It has everything to do with families and grieving and loss and the life lesson having to do with learning to deal with the cards you’re dealt regardless of how...
Eenie, meenie, miney mo!
Let me preface this blog post by saying that I realize how wildly blessed I am to be faced with this dilemma! It’s ten days out from the Pine Tree 100 endurance ride in North Waterford, Maine, and I am working hard at NOT trying to speculate as to which two of the...
Sarge and Ned it is.
I worked hard this week to shower my three horses with benign neglect. This close to a 100 there is really no point in “conditioning” them. They are either fit or they are not, and my preference is to take them in to a ride super well-rested and with a nice...
What’s Said In The Goat Barn Stays In The Goat Barn
Every cloud has a silver lining. When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. Look on the bright side. Statistically, our weekend at Pine Tree was a bit of a bust. Ned didn’t even start the 100; Sarge and I rider optioned at 65 miles. So why did I find myself...
The first thing to go …
When I looked in the direction of the heavens in late December, when we found our Dodge truck on a sales lot, and told the powers-that-be that I needed more consulting work, I had no idea how quickly and in what volume that prayer would be answered. Old clients, new...
Heartburn, heartache and ulcers … who is having which?
I apologize again for being so silent for so long. I was emailing someone the other day, one of my birth mom’s dear friends in fact, who had sent me a note, and telling her that no one told me, as a teen, that those were the good days, where funerals were few and far...