LD/ dangerous manners

["Mike and Laurie Hilyard" <PFmorabs@toast.net>]

Having had a busy week, I got to read all of this at once, and found it interesting how after a day or two, instead of talking about bad and dangerous trail manners, it quickly turned into another discussion about LD. 

 

I have never understood why LD matters so much to people that ride longer distances.  If you don't want to do LD, don't do it!  But if you don't participate, don't tell those of us who do how to play in our own sand box.  I have ridden mostly in Texas and MIchigan, and both places scored LD by using endurance BC criteria, with the ride time figured from when the horse pulsed down to 60 or 64.  It wasn't until later that I learned there actually was a different way of calculating placings in other parts of the country.  As Julie Suhr said, there are a bunch of reasons why people ride LD (and if you read the ride camp rules, you'll know we all have to bow to her superior wisdom!).  Personally, I ride very few rides at this point in my life (a 55 hour a week job and a two year old son), although I faithfully send my AERC membership in every year, and I much prefer endurance to CTR.  When I do get to compete, I ride LD, for the safety of my horse and for my own out of condition body.  So how about if the Limited Distance Committee doesn't make the rules for 100 milers, and people who don't like to ride LD don't make rules for those of us who do.

 

That being said, the real issue is out of control competitiveness, which is at least as bad at the 50 and 100 mile level as it is at shorter distance.  As a slow LD person, I frequently am blown by on trail by the 50 front runners coming in for the finish.  I always get out of the way, because I know that 75% of competitors running for first in a 50 are not a bit worried about me or my horse.  Would anybody like to make safety rules that control the speed for the last two miles of a  50?  Didn't think so.  The dangerous sportsmanship of the rider(s) in question is just that, and has nothing to do with the distance they were riding.  And what I read on ride camp was essentially that if the ride manager didn't get involved, we didn't have a way to protest.  Now THAT is where any rule changes should come in - either massage a current rule to make it fit the problem in front of us, or let's talk about language for a new rule that would allow such behavior, at whatever distance, to be punished.

 

Laurie

 

P.S.  Nice job, Edie!