Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Steph,

Is what you're saying below that the people from other disciplines 
(dressage, show jumping, etc) thought the Aachen endurance course was 
too hard?  Or are you saying that other endurance riders thought the 
course was too hard?

Do you think that the FEI rides (races) with flat terrain, where horses 
finish quickly, are more appealing to the general press and other 
disciplines, anyway?  They can see more of the race?  Maybe they think 
it's more "humane" to have horses out running hard for 8 hours, instead 
of horses being ridden steadily for 15 hours on a technical course?

What can we do to make the general press and the other disciplines 
realize that a technical course is not necessarily a bad thing?

One last thing - how does a technical course, like the one at Aachen, 
relay the message of a lack of horsemanship?  Wouldn't it display 
awesome horsemanship if one can get their horse through a ride like that?

Seems we have a good bit of PR to do for the endurance sport in general, 
if this seems to be the tone from the general equestrian press.

Alissa

"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."



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