Re: RC: desperate endurance wannabe

[SandyDSA@aol.com]

Good one, John. Can I add to this that it is important to both volunteer at a couple of rides each season AND learnt o ride prepared to have NO ONE to act as crew for you. My first 3 years, I rode without anythign that could be constituted as crew - sometimes with my old gal, sometimes with our stallion (always a bit of a challenge amidst dorks who let their horses get too friendly). My daughter who is now 14 has also volunteered at numerous rides, and has been taught to be ready to ride alone - no help. Why? Because that is part of the sport anyway - and also because when one is prepared to do this, everything above that is gravy - a real sense of appreciation for both crew and RM should come before anything else, save the horse's welfare.

I look back on those years of not only riding without crew, but going to rides alone, because all my ridign friends either could just manage a few laps around the ring in a show :) or couldn't get the time off to go to rides. It wasn't lonely - I had my horse and lots of new friends! But I learned to be prepared and not to count on anyone else for whatever I thought I might need. 

If we are going to encourage otehr people to join our sport with the right tools and right attitudes, I suggest we not only encourage these things but EXEMPLIFY them as well. And refraining from deriding LD would be nice too. Beethoven didn't START with his 5th!

S