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[RC] Discovery - Ridecamp Guest

Please Reply to: ti Tivers@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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For a rider who wants to win, (as in Finish First), a training regimen based 
on, what some would call "fluff" that is esoteric in nature, (i.e., doing the 
things which engender completing ride after ride with maximum enjoyment of the 
environs (read, "To Finish Is To Win")), could be deemed "inappropriate" and 
"non-effectual" in nature.

I guess that would be where you'd come in...to help a horse and rider Finish 
First.

And, that is an aspect of this sport for many people.  It's just that "many" 
people seem unwilling to pay the price, literally, to Finish First.  It could 
be that to do so might change the context of what it is they do.  The 
amateurish pursuit of sport.  It could be so due to the constraints of money, 
time, ethics (as determined by the individual) or any of a myriad of mitigating 
and contributing factors.

But for those who wish to Finish First....if my recommendations were ever 
sought as to how to make that happen, Tom Ivers, you'd be the first guy I'd 
tell them to contact.

True "Discovery" happens from the inside out, not from the outside in.

My views, I'm no spokesman for anyone, just myself,
I love the Yamaha Clavinova...it's my preference.

Frank

Ha! One of my old bands featured a clavinette player--great for blues and R&B. 
My primary instruments are guitar, bass and vocal--I use the synths mainly for 
padding out background or as MIDI slaves for my guitar synth.

Yes, I am focused on "winning by finishing first". That's the way I was brought 
up--with three brothers who were competitive as hell. Two swam at Yale, one at 
Indiana, and I swam at Ohio Wesleyan. Some 15 years aftere I had graduated from 
HS, the four of us went back to a swimming meet where we formed a freestyle 
relay that beat the varsity squad. Damned near killed me.

When I first began this current foray into RC, I stated that I was likely to be 
talking to only 1% of the Ridecamp population. Turns out, that estimate was a 
little low--things are better here than they were a few years ago.

My overview is an international one. And not a little nationalistic--I'd like 
to see the US endurance team be a winning team. Or at least not be a joke.

There is a misapprehension that winning means crippling the horse. My 
contention is that fitness protects the horse and, eventually, leads to wins 
that are next to effortless. I advise my guys not to race at all until the 
horse is fully prepared to win by a significant margin. And that might require 
years of dedicated preparation--so they tend to disappear for a while.

None, under my guidance, would EVER attempt to race a horse showing ANY signs 
of lameness or even exercise intolerance. In flat racing and standardbred 
racing, my guys will show up on the card as the only ones not racing on drugs 
like Lasix and bute, and NONE race on legs that have been "normalized" with 
cortocosteroid injections. That's a pretty big deal in parimutuel racing. Yet 
the workouts they accomplish are 3-4 times as strenuous as those of any of 
their competitors. Fitness doesn't kill--it protects. And wins.

Of course there is room in endurance for those who want to ride for the social 
or recreational reasons. 99% of the people you see in a municipal swimming pool 
on the weekend are not competitive swimmers. They're just having fun. That's 
fine. But then, they're not picked for an international traveling team for 
competitive swimmers, either. That would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? No matter 
who I know, I'd never be picked for an Olympic swimming team. In fact, even as 
a state champion 100 freestyler, I never got close to qualifying for the 
Olympics--even though I won ALMOST every race I'd ever entered. Almost doesn't 
cut it in human athletics. In fact, it doesn't cut it in international equine 
athletics, either.

ti


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