Finish Lines

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

K S SWIGART katswig@earthlink.net

As much as I hate to enter the fray here, I feel it important to point 
out that endurance rides are a race for the entire course, not just the 
last 200 yards. While it is more likely for multiple riders to be 
“racing” on the last 200 yards of the course than any other part of it 
(although much racing also goes on during the first part as well), that 
is not the only place that riders are racing.  Given that, it is 
totally unreasonable for riders to expect management to keep the race 
course clear of all possible obstacles.  It is, in fact, the 
responsibility of all riders to have sufficient control of their mounts 
so that they can avoid whatever obstacles may arise. “I was racing for 
the finish” (the race for the finish starts at the starting line, not 
200 yards from the finish line) is no better an excuse for running down 
pedestrians 100 yards from the finish line, than it is 5 miles out.  
The last 200 yards is no more or less a part of the course than the 
other 50 or 100 miles of it.

 “We were racing” as an excuse for expecting everybody and everything 
else to get, stay or be kept out of your way is a sure fire way for 
endurance riding to be confined to 80 laps around Santa Anita Race 
Track.  Endurance riders already have a sufficiently bad reputation of 
mowing down other trail users, to establish or even entertain a policy 
that Ride Management is responsible for ensuring that the course is 
sufficiently clear so that riders may indiscriminately gallop their 
horses out of control for the sake of “competition” is sheer lunacy.

All that said, I make absolutely NO comment on what may or may not have 
happened at last year’s Posse Ride.  All I am saying is that it is 
unreasonable for any rider at any endurance ride to expect any part of 
the course to be sufficiently clear that they can run their horses out 
of control…either on or off the course.  Sometimes there are obstacles
on the course, and we as riders should be prepared to deal with them.

kat
Orange County, Calif.