 |
[RC] MY Mistake - k s swigartI must confess to being thoroughly disappointed (actually disgusted is probably a better word) by the apparent attitude expressed here by endurance riders that failure to complete because the horse was pulled for being unfit to continue is not the responsibility of any of the decisions of the rider, but can be put entirely down to bad luck or being told to go on because the chef d'equipe said so, or because to keep going are too intense, or because the rider and/or the horse have no experience with the conditions of the course. However, I give up. Y'all are right. Nobody's endurance failures are a result of poor decisions or poor horsemanship and have nothing to do with anything the rider did. Of course, that means that nobody's successes are either. Success is nothing but good luck. There is no reason to be impressed by the accomplishments of successful riders or their horses, it wasn't because they are consummate horsemen who made good decisions with quality horses that have been properly prepared for the task at hand; they just got lucky. If failure at endurance is not attributable to bad horsemanship or the wrong horse for the job, then success cannot be attributed to good horsemanship or the right horse either. 'Cuz you can't have it both ways. I used to be impressed by Leonard Liessens and his accomplishments at world championships with his horse Orfeo. You cannot imagine my disappointment to discover that these accomplishments had nothing to do with his horsemanship or the quality of his horse, and can all be put down to luck. For me, however, _I_ will continue to blame MY failures (of which there are many) on my own inability to make the right decisions for success. And I am even willing to catalogue some of them here: In my first 100 mile ride (which was my first non-completion at an endurance ride), I started my horse at the 20 MT ride in the California desert barefoot (yes, this was more than 15 years ago before the barefoot thing became a fad). He had, the month before, finished 50 miles (also barefoot) at Camp Pendleton in the top ten, received high vet score with 10 out of 10 for lesions, soundness, and impulsion/attitude. By about 75 miles into the 100 he was showing signs of being foot sore and asked me to please get off and take him back to camp…so I did. I did not finish that 100; and I did not finish that 100 because I tried to go 100 miles through the California desert on pretty abrasive and quite stoney ground. This was a mistake, and it was MY mistake. In the next 100 mile ride (which was my next non-completion) was the Southern California Extravaganza. I didn't want to repeat the same mistake, so I put EasyBoots on over my horse's bare feet. In the first couple of miles he threw the EasyBoot off his right hind, but I didn't notice (it was picked up by one of the ride volunteers) and I continued on with one shoe missing. After about 20 miles, the ride volunteer who had picked up the EasyBoot saw me with my horse with his missing boot, and gave it back to me. I put it back on, passed through the first vet check easily, spent the next 25 miles or so paying closer attention to the EasyBoots (and constantly resetting them because they kept coming off). When we got to the second vet check, my horse was showing quite sore in the right hind (the one that had been bootless for 20 miles), and we were pulled. Trying to protect my horse's feet with EasyBoots without first determining that they would stay on for the entire effort and not paying attention in the first 20 miles as to whet her they were even there was a mistake, and it was MY mistake. In the next 100 mile ride (which was one year later at the same event, and was also my next non-completion), I had given up on the barefoot thing and shod my horse. I rode the first 55 miles well within my horse's condition, he passed out of the 55 mile vet check with flying colors, he looked great, was moving great, was happy to be going out on the trail as we started out of camp and headed up Mt. Laguna it started to rain with a driving wind, and I was dressed in nothing but a cotton denim jacket. As the ride progressed the rain became sleet, I became soaked to the skin. The weather agreed with my horse, so he still looked great, was moving nicely, and eager to go on…but it was starting to get dark, and I was starting to get cold. I still had 35-40 miles to go, much of it up on the top of Mt. Laguna; I vascillated back and forth between "I am tough; I can do it, even if I am cold" and "the Boy Scout in me knows that hypothermia is insidious and by the time I know I am hypothermic I won't care enough to do anything about it, so 'toughing it out' is just plain dumb." When I got to one of the road crossings, I let the drag riders catch up with me and they radioed for a trailer to pick up me and my horse and take me back to camp. I didn't think to ask if I could borrow some warmer clothes from somebody; however, it was a mistake to not be prepared for inclement weather (even snow in San Diego in June:)), and it was MY mistake. I have already posted about my non-completion at Swanton...MY mistake too. I didn't complete at the Californios 100 because I trotted my horse for 40 miles on the flat despite the fact that I had never done any more training on the flat that a couple of miles at a time (I only had hills) and he got a Charlie horse. MY mistake. I didn't complete at Virginia City because I used a new piece of tack that gave my horse a girth gall which was really sore at 77 miles. MY mistake. I didn't complete at the Grand Canyon because (I think, my memory is a bit hazy) my horse bolted off (same one as at Swanton, so it was probably from some traffic on a near by forest service road) with me and ran me into a tree (and consequently into the hospital). I already KNEW this horse was a bolter. MY mistake for not addressing the issue before taking her out into unfamiliar terrain. And most recently, I didn't complete at the Prescott Man v. Horse race because about 100 yards from the finish line I was allowing myself (and my horse) to be pushed by the two riders behind me (who were allowing themselves to be pushed by the two riders behind them), and my tired horse (she had, after all, just done 49+ miles on a tough course) was just a little too tired for the speed we were going and didn't get her front end out of the way fast enough so she reached up from behind and clipped herself on her heel bulb. By the time we vetted out at the final check she was dead lame. I didn't need to let myself be pushed faster than I knew my horse was fit for from behind; I could have just gotten her out of the way (which is what I did as soon as I felt her clip herself). MY mistake. This is not all of my failures; there have been lots of them. But I cannot, off hand, think of a single one that I would put down to "it had nothing to do with me or any of the decisions that I made leading up to it." I am reminded of the time I interviewed Julie Suhr for an article about Tevis, and asked her if she had any advice to give to somebody who was thinking of trying it for the first time. And her response was: "Dare to risk failure. Because even if you only make it to the first vet stop, you will have learned so much." This is only true if you are willing to attribute your failures to mistakes. If, instead you attribute your failures to "just bad luck" or "a rock with your name on it" or whatever other circumstances beyond your control, then you haven't learned anything at all. If the failures to complete at the world endurance championship CAN be attributed to poor horsemanship on the part of the participants, then something needs to be done to get better decisions out of the participants. If they CANNOT be attributed to poor horsemanship on the part of the participants, then the successes cannot be attributed to good horsemanship on the part of the participants either, and the FEI needs to stop giving out medals to people who just got lucky. However you look at it, the current format for FEI world endurance championships is bad for horses, because it is either an event exhibiting a bunch of bad horsemanship (half the riders cannot even ride their horse within its level of fitness) or it is an event that involves no horsemanship at all (and half the horses are end up tired and/or lame). kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|