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[RC] Rudeness: was Trail Trash-- Julie's comments - Maryanne GabbaniAll this discussion of rudeness is fascinating to me. When I first began riding my horses in the farming areas of the Nile Valley about 8 years ago I was warned that I would hate it. 99.9999% of riders in Egypt ride their horses in the deserts although there are miles and miles of really interesting trails winding along the irrigation canals that criss cross the valley. I found myself with two horses whose injuries required work on firm surfaces and since our desert is deep sand, I had no choice but to ride in the countryside. Virtually everyone I spoke to about riding in the countryside told me that apart from the challenges involved in getting horses to walk past water buffalo, diesel water pumps, blowing laundry hanging from balconies and between trees, not to mention camels, pickup trucks and donkey carts, the people in the villages and farms would drive me nuts. They would bug me for money or pens, they would be rude to me and they would throw rocks at me. Wow! I really was about to embark on the masochistic journey of a lifetime...but the horses couldn't be ridden on sand and the only hard packed trails were in the villages and countryside. So I started out and to be honest at first the flapping laundry, diesel water pumps and little ditches with running water were problem enough that I didn't have time to worry about rude people. In fact, I found that they weren't rude at all. They thought that I was a) quite bizarre and b) highly entertaining...especially when I was wiling to sit on a horse for half an hour waiting for her to make up her mind to step across 6 inches of running water. I had long conversations with children and well meaning farmers about the logic of waiting out a stubborn Arab mare and I did find that many of the children would ask me for "baksheesh" or tips whenever they saw me. I would joke with them and tell them that I wanted money from them to buy cookies or the like but made a rule never to give any of them anything but conversation. Basically, I went out prepared to enjoy myself, meet people, chat and waste time, and to be treated as courteously as I felt I should treat the people I was meeting. I was rarely disappointed. Once in a long while some kid might say something a bit off and I found it was usually sufficient not to hear it and go on my way politely. A number of years down the line, most of the people in the area know me and my horses by sight and by name. If on occasion a couple of little boys push the envelope of politeness (sorry guys, it usually is the little boys) there are now generally some parents in the area to tell them to leave me alone because I'm a nice lady. People say that you can't cheat an honest man and I suspect that it's very hard to be rude to a courteous person...and if someone is rude, your courtesy and lack of reaction to rudeness just emphasize their bad behaviour. On the other hand, I do find that there seem to be people who absolutely attract rudeness and are so sensitized to it that they will find it in borderline incidents. I'd rather not ride with them as a rule. Maryanne On Nov 12, 2007 4:10 PM, Bruce Weary DC <bweary@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: I have to agree with Julie's comments regarding the perceived mistreatment by "uppity" riders of longer distance. John Crandall is the nicest guy, and will sit down and discuss ride strategy, feeding, etc., at the drop of a hat with you. Barbara White takes a horse from our barn occasionally, obtains a Tevis buckle with it, and then returns it to the barn completely unscathed, almost without our noticing. She does it nicely, and since Betty Ford Clinic doesn't accept endurance riders, we help feed her addiction, as it seems the kind thing to do. But rude, she is not. Ever. I have seen riders whom I know to be very even tempered, once in a blue moon, have an angry moment. I know I have. I look at any rudeness that might occur on the trail as a rare event, and something that might not occur in the absence of the stress involved hauling horses hundreds of miles, camping with a ton of gear and equipment, performing in the most demanding equine sport in the world armed only with amateur level knowledge, training skills, and funding, and laying awake at night wondering if we can just stay on our excited mounts for the first five miles. Not to mention the fact that the horse is exposed to stressors that can accumulate and cause lameness, colic, even death! All on our "vacation" weekend. So, some folks can have their panties in a bunch before they even hit the trail, and if things don't go well, I can see how some might snap. It's certainly not the norm, and I compare it to rude people in traffic. Of the thousands of cars we encounter in a day, we remember the ONE guy that flipped us off, and we go home to our spouses and say, "Boy, drivers are really rude these days," generalizing over one isolated incident. No one can offend me without my consent. I just choose to not give my consent. Most of the time. Dr Q =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -- Maryanne Stroud Gabbani msgabbani@xxxxxxxxx Egypt Face to Face www.alsorat.com Weblogs: Living In Egypt miloflamingo.blogspot.com Cairo/Giza Daily Photo cairogizadailyphoto.blogspot.com Turn Right At The Sarcophagus haramlik.blogspot.com Photos of Egypt: http://www.flickr.com/photos/livinginegypt/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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