Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> The[y] wanted to win at just about any cost.
Just an aside, but cheating and trail cutting is not limited to those in
the Top Ten.  I was appalled several years ago when the daughter of a
prominent mileage rider admitted that on 100s where she and her mother
were out well after the pack had gone, they would go out of camp on loops
with no spotters or vet checks and her mother would calculate how long it
"should" take them to ride the loop.  They would find a way to shortcut
back to the "in" trail, and would tie their horses up out there in the
dark and take naps, and then come "in" at a time that was consistent with
the length of the loop and the pace they had been riding.

> From my own observations as a rider, a ride manager, and a ride vet,
cheating is fortunately not the norm in our sport, be it trail cutting,
drugging, or whatever.  Most riders are in this for the self-satisfaction
of knowing that they actually rode the distance on a healthy horse, even
those who are competitive.  They don't get that if they cheat.  The
"laurels" are secondary.

I am reminded of a student in my class in veterinary school who was so
upset that she might get a poor grade in "junior surgery" that she was
falsifying records on one of our surgery dogs.  I took the problem to one
of our surgery professors, and had a very profound conversation with him. 
He asked me to keep an eye on things to make sure that the dogs she was
dealing with were not in difficulty, and he kept an eye on her, but he
told me that in the end, she was the one who would punish herself the
most.  He was right--she eventually had a nervous breakdown.  I can't help
but think that the cheaters get very little satisfaction out of the sport
(or out of life in general), and when it comes to pushing the limits of
the rules that have to do with the horse's health, most of us vetting
rides have an idea who might be doing so anyway, even if we can't prove
it, and we tend to keep a little extra eye on their horses.  Beyond that,
I've noticed that most of the folks like this don't tend to stay in the
sport for long (with a few exceptions).  They aren't any happier in
endurance than they are at anything else they cheat at, so they move on,
trying to find that elusive satisfaction.

Most cases of riders being off course are inadvertant, and most times that
that happens, the riders are quite happy to get completion only, or to go
back out on course and do what they missed.

Heidi


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Riding alone is when you teach a horse all the "tools" and "cues" he needs
to handle the trail, to hold a speed, deal with hills, etc. It's also where
you develop the "bond" that causes him to "defer" to you before losing his
cool.
~ Jim Holland

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