Many good points here, Jerry. part of the ongoing problem is that here in the good ol' USA, any darned fool can hang a shingle and call themselves a trainer. Thus, anyone has the freedom to facilitate bad habits and poor training on any unsuspecting young person or new rider with impunity, especially the young folk. The young are often enamored with the horse itself, encouraged and supported by parents who know nothing of horses or the sport. Ultimately in the interest of making a buck, many young people and new riders are adversely affected by greedy "trainers", and come into the sport poorly prepared and even MORE poorly educated. Frankly, after having competed in open and breed shows, events and disciplines; having breezed race horses and ridden SAR and parade horses - I am saddened and amazed by the number of people who now buse their horses just to "win" an LD ride or pleasuer class - either out of inexcusable ignorance or even less excusable bad training by some person who demonstrates the same bad training. Even at the lower distances, endurance requires MUCH more than just about any equine sport available! Until and unless we begin - by using our dollars better and by limited but convicted adherence to AERC standards - to support ONLY the programs that justly educate and enlighten new and young riders, no amount of "revamping" will change the nature of some people. The "Win at all costs" mentality is nothing new - just a little bit fresh in this sport.
In years past, I have had the privilege of training with and for some top notch trainers in their fields. I have also had the pleasure of then training and teaching many, many young and new riders from the ground up. BUT - over the years I have backed out of that line of work, mainly because of this sort of thing - win at all costs, even abusing the animal; the idea that after 6 weeks of "training", a rider should be ready to compete. It is about time we are willing to call a spade a spade, and with regularity - abuse is abuse, and cheating is cheating, and never are either one of them right or tolerable. New rules won't matter if we don't consistently apply the old ones, and in addition, add the peer pressure to that. Nothing hurts my heart more that the picture of one VERY overweight gal who finished a ride a year ago and after dropping the reins of her heaving and over-heated horse on the ground, plopped her generous behind in a chair - and there she sat - as her horse wandered off in search of water. THAT was an ADULT! No rule governs that - we need to. My experience in this sport tells me that most riders are by nature rather bold - so can we confer some of that boldness into character and integrity of our sport?
And as an aside to those who abuse and/or cheat - KNOCK IT OFF!:)
