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

[Deanna German <dgerman@earthlink.net>]

What I didn't say is that I only posted snippets of the conversation with the
guy (the post was lengthy enough as it was!!!) I'm not one to assume the worst
about anyone.

EquesB@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 6/28/00 9:52:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> dgerman@earthlink.net writes:
>
> > So here you have this guy on an extremely overweight, out-of-condition
> >  Arab telling people about his experience with endurance. Was he telling
> >  the truth? I suspected not (no sponge on the saddle made me suspicious),
> >  but how would a person outside the sport know? He rides Arabs, has an
> >  endurance saddle, talks the talk. Must know what he's talking about.
>
> Did he specifically say he competed on the horse he was riding that day?
> Perhaps his competition horse was at home. At any given tijme I have at least
> 2 horses that are fat and out of shape, but I still pleasure ride them.

He said he did "endurance" from '93 to '96. So it definitely wasn't the same
horse. But OK, I have tons of friends who do distance riding (CTR and endurance)
and NONE of their horses looked like this guy's gelding. Even the broodmares and
pasture ornaments. Some people (esp, around here) simply try to make their
Arab's look like QH's. Fat QH's.

> I do not cary my sponge if it is just a short 10 or so mile ride.

He was a good distance from camp and planning on going a ways.

I think you might carry that sponge with you on a hot, steamy day like it was
when I met up with this guy. Even for a short ride. My sponge stays on my saddle
from May thru Sept. Theses trails run around a reservoir so water is always
available. The horses seem so grateful to feel that cool water.

> Or maybe this guy tried distance riding in a small way, he really liked it,
> and has
> designs on doing it agian someday.

I think this is likely true, although you wouldn't have known it to listen to
him talk. He assumed that since I'm starting out that I was totally clueless. (I
claim partial cluelessness.) What he didn't know is that I've been hanging out
with the distance riding crowd in this area for years and years and I've never
known any other way of going about this whole horse thing. Never saw him at a
ride and he was unfamiliar with the names of rides that I mentioned. (They've
pretty much stayed the same since the early 90's.) Things that make ya go
hmmmm....

Deanna