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[RC] Endurance - 2008 WEC Malaysia - Steph TeeterKat - I somewhat agree, and you notice that I put 'kind' in quotes. Here's a real challenge: there are many in the sport(and in FEI as well) who feel that endurance courses need a greater level of 'technical' challenge. Some of the other disciplines were rather appalled after the Endurance competition in Aachen - the general press was not kind. They described it as 'too demanding, not enough horsemanship, too impersonal (grooms and pit crews), too disorganized, too hard on the horses...etc. There will be an FEI endurance forum sometime in the future where people can talk about issues of concern with each other and with those who are in the position to create or change the rules of the sport. One of the issues of concern (both within and outside of the FEI) is the nature of the sport as it has developed over the past decade. That is, a fast 'race track' course has replaced the traditional (Tevis course) concept of Endurance riding. It takes less horsemanship to jockey a horse over a flat track than over a challenging technical trail. So, given the fact that some places simply don't have the terrain for the classic technical challenge, how can we, or even 'can we' regulate the sport so that it is more appealing, less demanding on the horses, something greater than a 50% completion rate, a sport requiring more horsemanship? Can we regulate the amount of 'technical trail' in any given event? i.e. x number of miles of difficulty or natural obstacle(hill, sand, rock, x-country, etc). How about scattering slalom sections along the trail (can those horses turn?). any ideas?? Steph -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of k s swigart Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 12:43 PM To: Ridecamp Subject: [RC] 2008 WEC Malaysia Steph said: I understand that Terennganu (the venue for the 2008 WEC) is flat and has little or no rock, it is near the beach (east coast) so there may be sand, but I think they are actually grooming most of the course to make it as 'kind' as possible. Personally, I think this is probably a mistake. Rocks would provide an incentive for riders to slow themselves down, and those that don't will more likely be eliminated for lameness before the horse runs into serious metabolic problems. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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