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Our culture used to value "cowboys" now cowboys are not PC. I remember 
my first job out of college, some General Officer said - "hey bud that's 
good work," the next thing I know I'm at Bragg learning how to jump out 
of a perfectly good airplane - "fly" and drop in uninvited with some 
buddies so we could put my "good work" in the field. We were cowboys but 
we got 'er done. That carried over to life back 40 years ago. Today we 
are much more careful. That's true across the board. I'm very happy I 
came of age in the 60's rather than today.

There is nothing wrong with a sip now and then of some good stuff. Quite 
frankly it is probably a lot better for us than the collection of drugs 
people take today - Advil, etc. And you have a hell of a lot more fun 
after a good slug than after you pot an Advil ;-) .

The few people that have had the honor of working for me have found out 
that growing a set and pushing the envelope was what was expected. 
That's how you solve problems. That's how you make progress. Some wanted 
to work for someone else. Some thrived on it. Some who avoided me like 
the plague - came back 5 years later wanting to sign up. I got my people 
promoted - because they solved problems and rose to the top.

However, today our horses probably get more protection from the few 
abusive riders than they got in the old days. There was the story Barney 
Flemming told me about locking up a riders saddle in someone's truck so 
they could not go back out. That is one positive sign of progress and 
something the AERC should foster as their number one priority.

Truman

Cindy Collins wrote:
> Ah, Christina...I think you missed the whole point of the old timers' 
> musings. While it's all up to your point of view, lots of us don't 
> think much of the "progress" and "positive changes." We were missing 
> the days when riders spent much less time whining and complaining and 
> demanding more rules and more awards for less effort and much less 
> risk. A time when riders thought 50 miles was a training distance for 
> 100s. Glad you enjoy our tales, though. They get better every year. 
> Wish you could have ridden along with Smokey Killen and Bandit on the 
> early XPs...we had to stop every 5 miles to take a sip out of his 
> bottle. The bottle was stuffed in a nasty old sock! If we were along a 
> passable road(I use this term very loosely), his crew drove ahead with 
> the motorhome and handed out the bottle every 5 miles. If it was too 
> rough for the crew, the bottle stayed with Smokey :) Don't think there 
> wasn't some "science" to this operation, though. Smokey had this 
> routine of walking a certain number of mins., trotting a certain 
> number of mins., then cantering a certain number of mins. When you got 
> back to the walk, it was time for the bottle!
>
> Cindy Collins
> c_collins@xxxxxxx <mailto:c_collins@xxxxxxx>


--

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a 
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also 
into you.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil


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