Re: RC: Posted today on a mostly Dressage Riders' BB . . .

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

Patti, please feel free to forward this to their list and they are
welcome to respond to me.
Angie
> I just finished reading my latest issue of the Chronicle. In it, was >
an > article about a May 100 mile ride in in Atlanta or Alabama (I >
forget). > Anyway, the temperature was 100 degrees. Twelve people did
this > race. Some > other entries dropped out due to the heat. 

Hello,
First, let me set my tone.  I am not feeling angry or argumentative, just
sort of a "heavy sigh" tone.  I wrote the article in the Chronicle, so I
suppose I am a good person to respond to your post.  Well, I tried to do
a good job of making the reader feel as if they were there and grasp the
challenge of successfully completeing a 100 mile ride with a horse. 
Perhaps I went overboard.  I described the heat as oppressive THE DAY
BEFORE THE RACE (though I never said a word about 100 degrees...upper
80's lower 90's I think).  The day of the race we got a break with cloud
cover.  

Now, I assume you have never been to an endurance race.  I am also
guessing, perhaps erroneously that you are involved in showing horses.  I
guess you would find it amusing that though I compete in 100's, last week
when my daughter took her riding lesson at a jumping barn I was appalled
that the large Quarter Horse who had just given a 10 year old child a one
hour lesson in a riding ring wasn't offered a drink before starting
another lesson.  As an endurance rider I had the overwhelming urge to
give the horse a complete sponge off (the instructor brushed off my
suggestion) between lessons rather than just switch saddles and knock the
sand off the girth area.  I guess cruelty is in the eyes of the beholder.

In the article I told of a horse who was pulled at the finish of the 100
mile race for lameness.  I'd like to point out that I have seen horses
win ribbons in the show ring who were as lame as that horse.  We in
endurance riding have set an incredibly high standard for ourselves and
we inforce it.  For a horse to get completion in an endurance race he
must be judged "fit to continue".  No, we do not pace them just to "make
it across the line".  They have to look good enough to go out again.  Do
you know that we have a ZERO drug policy?  We can't even give biotin with
yukka in it or it will test.  We do NOT cover up pain or lameness.  The
horses have to be 100%.

Now, I can imagine how to an outsider a 100 mile in one day race would
seem impossible.  I have done several myself and when I just think about
it, it still seems impossible.  BUT, we are thinking like people, not
like horses...Endurance horses that is.  I have tried showing, and I have
seen MANY sour horses (ulcers are a big problem).  I spent some time on
the race track and saw many unhappy horses.  I also saw quite a few die
in the short time I was there.  I have participated in endurance riding
for 13 years and could count the number of sour horses I have seen on 2
fingers. It doesn't make sense to me either, but they love it.  The
winner of that ride looked better than many a trail horse I see out in
the parks on weekends. We HAVE to do it right, or we can't do it at all. 

The first time I did a 100 I was so worried about whether my horse would
hate me for it.  I seriously wished I could do it on 2 horses so I could
do 100 miles myself without putting one horse through it.  Guess what? My
horse had a ball.  At 90 miles he was unsaddled and eating peacefully at
the trailer.  When I saddled him up and climbed on, his ears and tail
went up and he trotted happily out of camp.  I never believed people when
they said, "the horse comes back after sundown" but it's true. After 50
miles they don't seem to get more tired, they just get hungry.  It's more
like a person doing a long hike than a run.   

If you want to know what makes me sad it's to see an Arabian Horse, which
is bred to go, go, go locked up in a 10x10 stall and treated like a work
of art until it starts throwing itself up against the walls, or to see a
16.2 Warmblood who stares blankly out the door of his stall weaving.

People who have never been to an endurance ride picture a horse who is
pulled as a horse whose rider has pushed them beyond their limits, and
they come crawling into the vet check on their last legs.  I've had a non
endurance rider this week try to sell me a horse that they considered a
"sure winner" in endurance because it has never been tired and insists on
being in front and won't give up till it drops. That's the last horse I'd
want to compete with. The horses that get in trouble tend to be the ones
who are so "into" the race that they are dragging the rider around in
circles at the vet check and wanting to leave with every horse that goes
out.  These horses are watched closely by the vets and pulled the moment
their gut sounds or hydrations tests indicate that they are not handling
the stress of competition.

As far as lameness.  In endurance riding a "lameness" pull is as often as
not for a stone bruise.  Compare that to horses in other disciplines who
are bowing tendons, fracturing sesemoids, and stressing hocks.

Now, WHY would we ask a horse to go 100 miles.  That's easy, you do it
when 50 isn't far enough any more.  Sound rediculous?  Why don't you stay
at training level? I went for a 2 mile walk this morning.  I ran up one
hill.  It almost killed me.  To make me do a 5K would be cruel.  I am
built like a King Ranch Quarter Horse.  However, I was a good softball
player.  Does that mean that all marathons are insane cruelty and just
because it would kill me nobody else would enjoy one? I don't think so.

Right now I am writing a humor piece for the Chronicle's endurance issue.
 I am asking the question, "Is Endurance For You?"  I would guess in your
case the question is no.  That's O.K.  I took one dressage lesson with my
endurance horse and though the instructor seemed to really like him and
thought I'd done a decent job with him, by the end of the lesson he was
really getting ticked off and bucked for the first time in the 5 years. 
He hated it.  If I locked him up in a stall and trained him for
dressage...that would be cruelty for HIM.  Not your horse, mine.  

I'll be going back to The Liberty Run in Augusta, GA in October. 
Hopefully I'll be entered in the 100 miler.  I'd love to have you come
crew for me.  Ya wanna?

Angie McGhee & Kaboot (2000 miles)
Rides2far@juno.com (appropriate considering your comments.) >eg<
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