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Headed straight from the SERA convention to a big silver bird taking me 
away for awhile so I didn't get any chance to report.

It was one of the best we've had in years. Dr. Otis Schmitt was our 
speaker and his speech contained the wisdom of years of vetting rides.
The thing that he said that stuck in my mind was the "good old days are 
now." Today we know more and do it better and our horses are better off 
for it. Think about what that means folks.

I want to congratulate Betsy Knight for winning both SERA Best Condition 
and SERA Consistent Condition on her wonderful horse Jureeba Kassan. She 
is only the second person to ever win both of these awards in the same 
year on the same horse. I want to congratulate all the other riders that 
won year end awards for their accomplishments.

The "Lawton Johnston Presidents Award" was present to Dr. Schmitt for 
his contributions to the sport of endurance riding in the SE. This is 
the first time that someone that has never been on top of a horse in an 
endurance ride has received this award - and it is well deserved. Otis 
if you see this don't even think about taking up riding - you are too 
valuable to all of use vetting our rides. I asked Susan Kasemeyer to 
present the award - of course she just about broke into tears because of 
her respect to the man and didn't do a decent job on telling the stories 
that normally comes with this award.

So I have an Otis story I will tell to the world. Some years ago on my 
second 100 at the Carolina Ride over Thanksgiving weekend. I'm not sure 
Otis will remember it but I'm going to tell it the same. This is back in 
the days when men were men and the sheep were nervous and you rode 
horses that were lean and mean running machines. I come in at 95 miles 
(after my riding partner got us lost for about 5 to 10 miles). It was 
late and cold. Otis took one look at the mare and didn't like what he 
saw. She was down when we got in and when she trotted out, she drug me 
down the lane. I managed to get her stopped and get her back - she damn 
near ran over Otis. She went out at 56 and the CRI was 44. I guess since 
she damn near killed him he figured she was "fit to continue." Otis said 
she's fine - so the recorder put down some grades. As I was walking off, 
Otis said "She'd do a better with more weight." But it was, as always, a 
low key comment - one that comes with the wisdom of seeing it all.

He was right - I put a hundred pounds (actually closer to 200) on her 
and she did much better.

It was a great time and a great convention with a great speaker and 
great people celebrating a great sport.

Truman
--

“Many people consider the things government does for them to be social 
progress but they regard the things government does for others as 
socialism.” Earl Warren



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