Empthy [What is simipathy?]

[Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>]

At 03:20 PM 7/5/01, softride wrote:
>He learned nothing from....

Is there anyone on this list who has more than a few rides to their name 
that hasn't made a mistake, who *didn't learn* from that first or even 
subsequent error(s)?  Are Howard and I the only people who have ever done 
endurance rides who without intent nevertheless harmed their horse(s), and 
then suffered (beat themselves up over it) for a long time afterwards?

Howard is not a criminal.  He is a person who at worst made bad judgement 
calls.  I have done that too.  I have and still do feel guilt over those 
bad judgement calls.  Some things no one will ever know about because there 
was nothing to see, no resulting trauma for the horse, but *I* know my 
horse suffered because of my stupidity and I hate that.

Funny thing is that almost 15 years ago I wrote and published a story 
about  a ride I went to where I did something stupid.  I wrote it 
humorously but I was very serious about wanting people to not do what I 
did.  I also got some negative feedback - in this case in national (print) 
publications.

My intent was to say "Here be dragons - don't go there, cause I did and it 
was a big bummer!".  I just fail to see why such a warning was a bad thing 
then, and why in Howard's case it would be a bad thing now.  I feel it's 
much better to learn from other people's mistakes than make them 
myself.  Took me a while to learn that one, though.

Lif Strand
Quemado NM  USA
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