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Year 2020
The Lampoon of Future Endurance Riding
By Cyndee Pryor


Forget car-pooling. With gas prices at their current rate, and we all know 
where they are heading - giddy up -
we may pine for smidgens of preposterous shifts to our play.  Rides would be 
staged closer to riders and
in many more locations where only the locals show up and don't have to travel 
far. With two to ten riders
showing up at many of the rides, things would have to be changed slightly.  

Instead of the ride manager multi-tasking or wearing multiple hats, he/she 
would wear one helmet with many
different colored feathers.  Each feather would signify a certain task.  At the 
ride meeting the feather would
be purple for ride manager, at the vet checks the feather would be blue for 
vet, green/red for in/out timer,
yellow for pulse taker, and black for rider as this would be the mood of that 
person when they were in the
saddle.  If there were more than one feather in the helmet at any given time, 
this signifies to everyone else
to stay far away.

The rider/manager/vet would be referred to as Feather/s in the Helmet and take 
a one-page, mail-order
course on vetting. Nothing major, just enough to know the beast in hand has 
four legs, non-cloven hooves,
no horns or antlers, is larger than a Great Dane, has hair covering most of 
it?s body, has the potential to
move forward, and appears to be breathing.  

The trails would be different. Granted, the terrain may not be all that 
desirable.  Nor the view.  However, cost
effectiveness would be the theme.  If the trail were very limited, 
consideration would be given to  how many
times a horse can go around an arena, rural block, or in someone?s pasture in 
one direction before changing
leads.  

The riders would be mandated to mark the trail on Friday and pull flags on 
Sunday. But in reality, the trial
would seldom be marked. During the ride meeting with the purple feather, the 
turns on the course would be
duly noted by  the fourth dead tree at the top of the hill and the place where 
the sparrow?s nest was ten years
ago. Maps would be non existent as the indigenous would already know the trail, 
and the newcomers would
dutifully pursue someone of local trail experience.  

Upon arrival at a vet/pulse check, everyone would be required to wear a pulse 
monitor and show it to the
in-out timer/rider/manager/vet. Unless that person was busy.  Then they would  
mark down their own in-time
on the clip-board and let themselves out of the hold at the appropriate time 
according to their own watches. 
       
Crews would be required to crew in a general sense of the word.  At any given 
moment, their job could
change, their rider could change, or they may have to take the place of 
Feather/s in the Helmet. 

Now I?m not apposed to the suggestion made by someone - name unmentioned - 
about not even bringing
our horses.  We show up with our rigs minus the horse trailer.  On Friday night 
have a nice pot luck with ride
meeting following.   As the anticipation mounts, we bring our registration 
papers for our trusty mounts on
Saturday morning to the starting line.  Feather/s in the Helmet reviews the 
pedigrees.  If there is any doubt,
8x10 pictures are presented showing the horses? confirmation.  Sometime after 
lunch, again a pot luck, the
announcement is made as to who could have made top ten, first, and BC.  We give 
tail end award to the
person who has a reputation of leaving their camp site a mess, and most 
courteous rider to the person who
brings the best food to the pot luck.  

Course with gas prices being what they are, we might have to forgo the above 
ideas in favor of surrendering
to an email-with-attachments club.


                                                                       


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