Check it Out!    
RideCamp@endurance.net
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]
[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index] [Subject Index]

Chronicle Commentary, September 7, 2001



 
Following is the Commentary I was refering to in my last post. It contains much food for thought!
Steve Rutter
 
CHRONICLE COMMENTARY
September 7, 2001

Keep The Principles That Make Endurance Unique

The unintended theme of the Pan American Endurance Ride Championships (p. 8) was that endurance riding is going through a sort of challenging puberty. It’s certainly not the same as it used to be, and its participants often don’t think it’s where it should be. But they’re not quite sure where it should be going.
This unrest was apparent in discussions of the American Endurance Ride Conference’s discontinued relationship with the American Horse Shows Association, in the continuing tension between international and national members of the AERC, in the discomfiture from dealing with Federation Equestre Internationale officials on this trail, and in the riders’ disagreement with the philosophy (as they understand it) espoused by FEI officials.
Endurance riders mostly want just to be able to ride their Arabians down the trail without somebody else telling them how to do it better. But some members have tasted the limelight, and, like everyone else in every horse sport, they think that with just a bit of promotion, TV and other media exposure, everyone will want to join them in the fun. And they believe that the resultant growth will mean a “better” sport and prosperity for everyone.
Well, it just ain’t that simple or that painless. The transition from purely participant sport to a spectator sport is very tough, one that hasn’t fully matured in any of the other horse sports we cover–and may never. It’s fraught with all kinds of thorny perils, mostly involved in the alluring dual panacea of TV coverage and prize money.
Endurance riding, it seems to me, carries four principles that some people are, thankfully, trying to keep sacred. First is the care of and for the horse. At an open forum sponsored by the U.S. Equestrian Team at the Pan American Championships, Valerie Kanavy lamented that rules and regulations were turning the riders’ relationship with the all-important veterinary corps from cooperative to adversarial. She doesn’t want to feel as if she has to hide her horses’ condition; she wants to be able to honestly discuss her horses’ soundness and recovery with them anywhere on the trail. That desire has to remain paramount–100 miles is an awe-inspiring physical challenge, and the horses that do it so generously deserve uncompromised care.
Second is the cooperative, supportive and often family atmosphere. Camaraderie is the first thing to go when the stakes go up in money and exposure, but the mutual support of people engaged in a strenuous activity is what makes it fun and meaningful. Third is the endurance riders’ saying “to finish is to win.” This philosophy is intrinsically related to the first two principles, and it’s also in grave danger as the sport heads toward the big time. When fame and big prizes are at stake, only “to win is to win.”
Fourth is an appreciation of–often devotion to–the natural world. Rides like the Tevis Cup, the XP ride, other historical rides, and the GMHA trail over endless miles of tree-covered dirt roads that pass 200-year-old farms and graveyards help preserve our country’s natural and historical resources. But they make the trail a far bigger logistical challenge, and they’re not the kind of ride that some people in the FEI favor. They believe endurance rides should be a couple of loops from the same start/finish area, primarily in the name of fairness and media friendliness. But, like the other three principles, they are what make endurance riding, as practiced in this country, a truly unique sport.

John Strassburger



    Check it Out!    

Home    Events    Groups    Rider Directory    Market    RideCamp    Stuff

Back to TOC