Ridecamp: Re: [RC] speeds at the WEG

In a message dated 9/26/2002 7:41:05 AM Pacific Standard Time, heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:


> Again, experience....
>  


.....and decency. The idea of someone catch riding at a  ride just makes me shake my head. It is the norm in the show ring - but those horses and "riders" are doing 18 laps in a beautifully cultivated arena. At a 100 miler, there had BETTER be both experience AND a sense of partnership between each horse and its rider. There has been so much abuse of leasing horses at every level the past decade, that we wouldn't dream of leasing a horse off the property, nor would we allow anyone we did not know to at least be exceedingly competent and responsible to go off on one of our horses without being in attendance. They aren't motorcycles. They are horses. They breathe, they hurt, they can be frightened - and if that is too soft and sweet for some - they need to go get a motorcycle. All in all, as much as knowlege and experience are all-important, so is compassion, common sense and true love for the creature being dragged along for the "ride". s