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Thank you, thank you again, Frank.
Again you have put your finger on the heart of this
sport without delving into the politics, egos, fears, etc. etc. Brought a
tear to my eye, you did. (but that's not hard to do. I am a sentimental sort).
What you wrote about the true hero is pure poetry.
Ride happy with a happy horse.
Pat
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2002 8:06 AM
Subject: Re: [RC] Your Ride
History/Pulls
Sylvia,
I don't
know anything about Karen's ride history.
I don't really
care about Karen's ride history.
The truth is, I don't
really care about percentage of completion, percentage of pulls, etc.
That's not to say that I wouldn't love to complete every ride started with no
problems, seen or unseen...I would.
Does this seem
strange to you.
I hope
not...
To my knowledge, there is no AERC award for the
rider (or horse) with the highest completion to pulls ratio, at any
level.
There seems to be a stigma in the endurance
community about PULLS.
That's too bad...it seems to me
that when a rider pulls a horse or a vet pulls a horse, it is probably a good
thing for the horse.
Is it a good thing that something
has CAUSED the horse a problem?....absolutely not. Is it a good
thing that someone cares enough about the horse to either pull on their own
or, thank God, a vet helps the horse by noticing and (sometimes it takes
this....) CONVINCING the rider to pull the horse and (if that fails), looks
the rider in the eye and says, "this ride is over for this horse, go take care
of (fill in the blank) and next time check your ego at the door, willya, you
big dope...." (okay, vets don't really talk this way...)
The ONLY heroes in this sport stand tied at the trailer all night or meander
in portable corrals waiting to carry the weight of the day and of our dreams
and aspirations while we rummage around looking for just the right riding
outfit and latest gadgets and supplements to make us more efficient in the
pursuit of that perfect endurance ride. The heroes spend the night
eating, drinking, pooping and peeing, while we listen to the clock moving
closer and closer toward the ups and downs of the day to
come.
It's only my opinion, but I think that
anytime we get to ride, it's the perfect endurance ride...pulling or
getting pulled happens in order to protect the horse from more serious damage
or, God forbid, permanent damage.
We focus too much on
the rider and too little on the horse...ultimately, RIDER History is (in my
opinion) not as important as HORSE History.
And, Harca
is a cool horse.
Are there egos and super-egos in our
sport, sure, but they'll get it one day, hopefully, though, not after too many
horses have to suffer teaching them.
No slings and
arrows here, directed at anyone, just some random Sunday morning
ramblings.
Take care,
Frank.
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