Re: RC: The Edge

[RunRoskoRun@aol.com]

In a message dated 04/19/2001 1:12:19 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
guest@endurance.net writes:

<< > He then spoke of the horses.  Doc mentioned that we, as endurance 
riders, 
 > push them closer to the edge, closer to their breaking point, more than 
any 
 > other equestrian sport.
 
 But if I take this statement out of its context and attempt to understand it 
 as stated above, I can only say that it is a statement with which I cannot 
 agree.
 
 For me, endurance is not a sport about pushing horses close to the edge.  In 
 fact, I think that to do so is to invite disaster.  >>
Wow,  when I read Howard's description I didn't interpret Dr. Frazier's words 
in this way at all.  I read it as endurance as sport, on the whole, because 
of what it is, pushes horses closer to the edge.  Not that riders as a whole 
intentionally push them there (although I know that sometimes happens 
intentionally and unintentionally).  Based on my interpretation of Howard's 
description of Dr. Frazier's words, I would agree with him.  My basis for 
thinking this is (IMO) just that anytime you take a living thing into such a 
state of work that they are losing vital components to their basic living 
needs (i.e. water, salts, etc.) and you must intervene to keep those levels 
up (i.e. giving eletrolytes, etc.), then (IMO) they are taken close to the 
edge.  Then I look at what I know about this occuring in endurance as related 
to other equine sports and it appears to me that endurance has more of a 
push.  If done appropriately the danger level is low, but just as I go out 
and run 10 miles, I take myself closer to the edge just by doing it.

Anyway, that's how I interpreted it.

Abigail Madden