Heidi Smith wrote: "There is already a wonderful and popular distance sport that
does that. It is called Competitive Trail Riding."
But, Heidi, our BC system does take
speed into consideration, and there is no "minimum time" as there is in
CT. So BCs reward those who "do the trial as quickly as practicable, while
keeping one's horse fit to continue."
>So what
about my proposal of only giving BC awards in each weight category, year end,
regional, etc.? Just eliminating placings for time across the line
altogether?
The very essence
of our sport is doing the trail as quickly as practicable, while keeping one's
horse fit to continue. Taking the clock out of the equation makes it
another sport altogether. The challenge is how to keep the sport what it
is while honing our skills (both as riders and as those in control roles) in
detecting where "the edge" is for each horse so that we don't cross
it.
