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Re: [RC] Wussification of endurance - Truman PrevattTx Trigger wrote:Endurance riding is an endurance sport rather than a speed sport. It has nothing whatsoever to do with "enduring" discomfort. There is nothing wrong with rides with all checks in camp - especially for a 25 or 50 mile ride and if that's all the land that is available - it's better than on ride at all. The issue I brought up earlier was the disappearance of other options for 100 mile rides - which by the way tracks with the decline of 100 mile riders. It is interesting that the most popular by far of 100 mile rides is point to point. The Tevis - which runs at about 200 plus riders a year - is point to point. The Tevis in a normal year accounts for over 20% of the 100 mile starts. That percentage has been steadily increasing since 1996. Running laps into camp takes the adventure away from a 100 mile ride. That may be why the numbers have steadily declined. The laps into camp seems to be a wonderful format for an FEI 100 where riders are trying to get a COC and speed matters. Ignoring the Tevis and looking at the size of the 100 mile rides and who is riding - it appears that the FEI riders are the ones supporting the 100 mile rides. That could be that the sense of going somewhere, the adventure - the very things that caused some of us to ride our first 100 is gone from the 100 mile rides today.Just maybe the way to get more people out to 100 mile rides and get more new people to start is to bring back the "romance" of adventure to the event. Truman snip........ Yet, one of the most popular 100 mile rides in our region has many multiple loops back into a central camp, with all vet checks in that camp. 25 miles (longest loop) and camp, 15 miles, camp, 10 miles, camp etc. etc. . Some loops are repeated until you have finally done that last 10 mile loop, to finish riding 100 miles. Riders like having the vet checks where they can go to their huge LQ trailer, take care of their horse, and sit in the a/c awhile, relax, turn on the news on their TV and put their feet up while waiting to head back on to the trail. The thought of having just a crew bag out at an on trail vet check, and only having the basics along to crew their horse is unthinkable to many.I personally think we are slowly losing the adventure part of endurance in many areas. Some will argue that they need to cater to these new riders who want these types of rides, to have ANY rides at all. Thank goodness for people like Dave Nicholson who still put on rides that cater to the adventurous type who not only will ride one 50 mile ride in a single loop out of camp, but who want to do that 5 days in a row with just a single vet check each day, where riders seem to do just find with the crew bag type of check. But in general, I think we are seeing the wussification of endurance. Where are al those tough riders who like adventure, and would like to try a new sport? -- “The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” Friedrich Nietzsche =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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