Re: RC: national championship/qualifications

[DreamWeaver <nvrider@charter.net>]

At 10:50 PM 2/6/02 -0500, you wrote:
> I live about as far
> west as you can go and no one I know, including Heather, ever said that
> trail was easy or an easy competition.  Where did you get this
> idea.  Somebody wrote and asked about what people thought and I
> thought Karen and Kathy were just saying how they feel. 

YAY Maryben!!!!  

You guys, we were answering a question somebody asked about what we
thought.  Whenever that happens, BOD members get all wound up tight
and think we are being negative about the NC ride.  That isn't it at
all.  Why is it hard to accept that a lot of members feel as we
do?  There are a lot of different people in this sport and I don't
expect them all to feel or see things as I do, but I do resent posts like
Duane's about whether or not I think I can handle it.  We were
talking about the qualifications for a ride, not whether or not people
think they can personally handle doing a ride in a different region or
not.  btw, I think I rode in 6 or 7 regions this past year and yeah,
I rode in real heat and real humidity.   Let's be realistic
about expecting where the riders are going to come from when they have a
NC ride.  There will always be some people (like me) who are willing
to travel farther than the average member to go to a ride.  But the
majority will probably come from where there is a large concentration of
riders that can travel to the ride within a day.  The more riders in
that area, the more there will be that may be qualified.   It
takes a long time to build a good endurance horse, it will take a long
time to build a good NC ride.  Discussion without being so defensive
would be a good start.  I still would like to see the issue of the
completion rate this past year addressed.  What can be done to
improve this?  More vet checks?  Lower pulse criteria?  A
pre-ride lecture?  

Karen
West Region

P.S. Truman have I succeeded in pissing off the other half yet?  :+D