Re: [RC] It IS just my Opinion, Richard - Richard ALLEN
On 4 Nov 2008, at 13:49, oddfarm wrote:
Richard, if you think the?biggest shame about international riding?is?my "knee jerk" response, then of course we will never see eye to eye.
No, I don't think that and I didn't say that. Your italics make it look like you quoted my letter. Naughty naughty! Here is what I actually wrote:
>>As it is these letters come across as knee-jerk responses; not clever, not funny, not serious contributions to whatever debate there might be - which is the biggest shame.<<
This might seem like a trivial point to raise - although like most people I don't much appreciate being misquoted - but to me it kind of goes to the heart of the matter. There are serious issues to be debated concerning international endurance and they deserve to be debated in a serious way - not with innuendo and gossip, or the constant blurring of the distinction between preference, opinion, and fact, and not by putting words in peoples' mouths so you can disagree with them. It all adds up to arguing in bad faith, and it doesn't get anyone anywhere.?
It seems to me that you can be the sort of person who reads Jim Bryant's piece about rehydration after travel, note that he mentions fluid depletion after 10 hours in a trailer and think hmmm... next time I truck my horse across the state I'll bear in mind that he might be more depleted than I thought, even though he's been drinking. Or you can be the sort who hears that your national team members have rehydrated their horses and use that information as a stick with which to beat international endurance. ??
