On completion awards, I don't remember if I gave
out shirts before or after but I did give them to everyone. You can ask my kids,
husband and trainer Wendy and I think they will all agree, I am not soft
hearted. In fact, trainer Wendy says I have no heart, especially when she breaks
her elbow and I still make her go get beer. (Who knew? Besides, it was just a
six-pack, not like a case or anything really heavy. She had another arm for
crying out loud!).
The reason I gave everyone a shirt was because it
takes a lot to get to a ride. The hours of training, money spent on supplies and
entry fees, gas and time off work for most people makes it hard for me to let
them leave empty handed. Sometimes a did-not-complete is out of the riders
control anyway like a lost shoe, tripping, rider can't finish,etc,. Just because
you didn't finish, doesn't mean you didn't try really hard to finish.
And with all the griping about LD rides and nobody
knowing how to ride them properly, why wouldn't RM reward a rider for making the
smart choice not to complete if their horse wasn't capable and as well prepared
as they could have been? Let's see...if I race and win, I get a shirt but I
don't deserve it because it is just a LD training ride and I am nothing but a
hot-rod. If I don't race, go overtime or choose not to complete or get pulled, I
don't deserve to be acknowledged for what I attempted to do on a
training ride. Things that make you go...Hmmmm?
Now that I am back to riding Odd Todd, I will be
using a select few LD's for speed work. That's training, right?
Lisa Salas, The Odd fArm
What would you attempt to do, if you knew you could
not fail?
