P&R

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

 >I hope to volunteer for the first > tim> at Goethe>  I am so glad to
know I will be yelled at, cursed at, and just have > badattitudes thrown
my way. 

Good grief, what gave you that impression? The main reason I suspected
something was wrong at the Silver State ride was the fact that more than
just one or 2 riders questioned them.  We may have one occasional cranky
or rude rider here and there, but it's *very* rare in my experience, so
if a lot of riders are upset, I figure something was wrong.  

And as far as "taking riders in the order they came in" it shouldn't
matter in the Southeast because once you walk in that P&R box, your
horse's time has stopped, you just have to confirm it.  I usually love it
when you take awhile to get to me cause my time has stopped and the horse
has more time to drop.  So, make sure you understand that principal so
you won't feel rushed...  You think your horse is down, you enter the P&R
area and call out your number to (usually Nancy) the timer as you go in. 
She writes down the time that it is when you cross that line into the P&R
area.  Now, whether you wait 5 seconds or 2 minutes, when they check your
horse and see he's down they call out your number to Nancy and she calls
out what time the horse ENTERED the P&R area.  See?

As a rider I remember ONCE when I got upset enough to want to yell at
management.  We'd missed a turn, but remained on marked trail, did 5
miles and ended up back in camp.  Quite a few had done it and management
said, "Oh, we weren't doing THAT blue loop." They hadn't bothered to pull
down the old markers from that blue loop though. :-P  I don't think I
said much, but I was embarassed later that I'd said anything.  I'd been
steaming at the time though.

Years later I was managing a ride where two riders came into the first
vet check in the lead, but they'd done the trail backwards.  They were
very mad at me and said a few things.  Since they'd been following the
wrong color of ribbons, and I'm known for having a sharp tongue at times
my friends were surprised I didn't fly into it back at them, but I knew
how they felt.  I told them, "We'll talk about it later after you cool
down and see if you still feel that way" because I remembered how much
different I'd felt later on.  Well, later that evening those people
apologized, again and again, we made great friends and they were really
nice people.  So...if someone happens to be less than gracious just try
to remember, they're dehydrated, stressed, and generally a tad mentally
compromised.  Chances are they are very nice people.

Angie