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Re: [RC] FEI - issues - rides2far@xxxxxxxx

2. equitation training - the level of equitation and horsemanship is not up
to snuff, especially compared with the other disciplines;

This is something that I have given quite a bit of thought after the APEX 
clinic this weekend. 
There was a comment John Crandell made: "You're only as strong as your weakest 
link, so 
you need to focus on the thing that is your weakest link. Well, after watching 
all the 
sessions, my personal opinion is the difference between most of us 
and the great "fast" people is not our ability to train for speed at 
all. It is our shoeing and equitation. 

The really successful *fast* guys are all *very* 
good, *proper* riders, and they have made sure they have great 
shoeing. BECAUSE they are such good balanced riders, with balanced 
shoeing, they can train hard without laming their horses. Meanwhile, 
we lame our horses with our shoeing and our riding before they get 
fast. It isn't our feeding, or our aerobic training that is beating 
us, it's the fact that our horses can only go so fast while dealing 
with the handicaps we are giving them.

The farrier would say things like, "You can get away with imbalance like that 
in a fifty, but 
that will get you around 70 miles when the inflamation sets in. Meanwhile we're 
all thinking 
that since we can do 50 on that shoe job the shoe job is fine, and that the 
horse has 
problems at 70 miles because he isn't fit enough. 

My weakest links are shoeing and equitation. If I can keep a horse sound, I 
*can* train 
harder.  I need to face that and 
address it. John said, If you have to put what you love (endurance) 
on the back burner and go work on the part you like the least 
(equitation) that's what you've got to do to get more successful. 
THAT I believe was the moral of this clinic but I'm not sure how many 
got it. I have had a few lessons and watched a few and I see people 
waste a whole lot of expensive time justifying why they do what they 
do rather than taking the advice and trying to fix what they're doing 
wrong. After I heard others do it, I realized that is exactly what I have done 
when someone 
has tried to coach me. No more! I see some who simply are *sure* they have 
already arrived 
and couldn't get any better...which is of course the worst sign of ignorance. I 
don't know 
how an instructor who is Grand Prix level themselves and still wants to take 
lessons every 
chance they get can keep from just *shaking* someone who is doing a hundred 
things 
wrong and thinks they're perfect. At least I know I need help so I'm a little 
farther ahead 
that that person. :-P


I think people are far more interested in buying a new heart monitor 
and concentrating on that part of raising the bar and it's not their weakest 
link, though it 
certainly is 
more fun. If we really want to get better, those stupid 
exercises they suggested on a lunge line & a gentle lesson horse are 
what we ought to be doing, and one time at a clinic won't get it. We've got to 
break down 
and pay for lessons around home. >ouch<

I don't want anyone whose lesson I watched to think I am condemning them. I 
admire them 
for shelling out the bucks and doing what I need to start doing. They are 
already on the 
road I'm just trying to get to. I saw them ride their horses as they left for 
the trail and they 
ride as well as any of us in a straight line. It's *hard* to take our horses 
and try to keep 
them moving forward in a ring, with no *reason* to go forward,and people 
watching you. 
My goal is to be like them and have the nerve to listen to what my faults are 
and start trying 
to correct them.

Angie





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