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[RC] Fwd: [CanEndure] WEC Comments - John Teeter(Forwarded by Request) Begin forwarded message: Posted by: "Ken Townsend" ken.townsend@xxxxxxx llyndallee Tue Nov 11, 2008 10:50 pm (PST) I read the posts on Ridecamp, and I must say that I was shocked to think people could write such terrible comments about the US team. I couldn't imagine being on the team and reading those posts, knowing that you did everything in your power to do well. Not just for your country, but for yourself. I also felt sorry for the US, because I think the expectations were to high, same for Australia. While I watched the ride on the internet, I must say, my first thought was, how can we compete when so many teams have so many people working on there horses. You could not see the horses for people at the vet checks. They had about 20 people per horse, and yes, it looked like they took over the best crew areas, had a hundred buckets, and were carting off the ice in trucks and big coolers. When the horses came in, the riders stepped off, and didn't touch the horse again until they were getting back on. Crewing out on the trail looked to be the same, about 10 to 12 people per horse. Maryanne hit the nail on the head every time. Unless we change our way of thinking and doing things, we probably won't be front runners anytime soon. Our horses are our buddies, our friends, our teams mates. I didn't get that feeling when I watched the winning riders. When she talks about our countries being so big. That has always been a problem. We don't ride together, train together or even share that much helpful information. We only meet once in awhile, and that's to compete against each other. I just sent an email to Rick today, saying that we need to ask all our riders, vets, crews, chefs and support staff, to make a report, and tell us what they need and would like to see changed, or done differently, to help our next team succeed, and do well. We were all so happy about our riders finishing. I would be very disappointed to hear anyone criticize anyone of them, they did their very best, and they finished with good sound, healthy horses. We weren't there, we didn't face their difficulties. They had so many obstacles to overcome. Riding all night in the rain, to me was a big one, not only for the riders but the horses as well. We need to pick our teams much earlier then a month or two ahead. We need to be sharing our information. Wendy M & Wendy B were talking to the security guard the other night, and he was saying, that he never expected our horses to finish. He made lots of other comments, but I will leave that for them to make a report on. Our riders were told to stick together at the start. Well, that's almost impossible. One was leaping and jumping and wouldn't cross the starting line, one just wanted to go, and couldn't set any kind of a pace. Now, tell me how your suppose to ride together, when there are 133 horses, many out of control, and some with no riders. Our riders did the best they could, 3 went together that had similar pace, one went on, and the other caught up. You do the best you can. Its almost as if, we need professionals, that are doing this job and getting paid, so they can devote their time, to finding out, and get good information to help our horses and riders. We need to know what the other countries are doing, what is working, and use what we can. An example being, we read that the US put their horses on fluids when they arrived. Only takes 2 days to bounce back instead of 4. Sure did help the horses. Did our vets ever discuss this with our riders. Was it an option? When Mariah left, we sent fluids, and he was put on them as soon as he arrived, they also drew blood to see what if anything he was lacking. Our team did well. They had so much to over come, traveling half way around the world, heat and humidity, different feed, no real turn out. Nothing was in our favour. They beat the odds. Now its time to start getting ready for Kentucky. We do have an opportunity there. Other countries like Malaysia are already preparing, they are buying horses in the US, having them trained in the US. They are not sending them half way around the world to compete. I don't know how we get our government more involved. I don't think horses are a priority. What I have learned though, if you ask, someone may just say, Yes. And if not, you just keep asking until you get the right answer. It really does work, and it certainly doesn't hurt to keep trying. We are so very proud of our riders. Job well done!! Lynda Re: WEC considerations Posted by: "Kay Melvin" kaymelvin@xxxxxxxxxxx kay.melvin Wed Nov 12, 2008 8:25 am (PST) Having just got back last night and not having internet access almost the whole time we were gone I'm catching up on the "news" posted since we left. It was an incredible experience and as soon as I get a chance I'll be adding my two cents worth. I'm not going to comment on what Ridecamp may be saying as I've not read them, unless you were actually there it would be hard to describe an event like this. We have a lot to learn and perhaps we need to change our tactics if we want to be world contenders - we certainly cannot expect to be in the medals doing what we usually do and the way we are used to doing it. I must comment that if the FEI are going to put rules in place then they need to have Stewards who will enforce those rules. The winning riders certainly had a LOT of help, my question would be did they have more than they should? There seemed to be so many grooms!! It really was like an assembly line - as the horses passed through the in gates there was a bucket brigade pouring ice water over the horses as they walked through the cooling area to the vet check. Needless to say our riders (and horses) are not used to that and had trouble getting their heads around permitting the grooms to do that which meant longer recovery times (and some tense moments trying to get the temperatures down in order to meet parameters). Our horses did very well coming from a totally different climate and trying to adjust in a such a short space of time and as you have already read one of them, AVTAR, just couldn't adjust in time to start. Those who did were able to work very hard at keeping the horses cooled out at the check points so that they could keep going - it was a very tough ride and had it taken place during daylight hours I'm quite sure we would not have been able to make the finish. During training sessions prior to the event it was tough to keep the horses cooled after just 8-10 miles let alone 100!! Just standing around doing nothing the sweat would be running off us and out in the full sun was very draining to those of us not used to the heat. The challenge at this was not hills or tough trail but just the heat and humidity. Watching how other crews worked was a wonderful learning experience - hopefully, although we won't have the same conditions to face, we can use some of these lessons in time for Kentucky. Our teamwork was our strength with the grooms pitching in wherever they could to help all of the horses - I said it during interviews prior to the ride that our teamwork would be our strongest point and to a great degree this proved right. During strategy discussions before the event the riders had agreed we needed to ride as a team - unfortunately this didn't exactly happen as planned, the excitement at the start was a bit overwhelming for RBF Super Sport and we had difficulty getting him over the start line - he made up for it during the ride fortunately. FC Galaxy ended up ahead of the team group, I haven't had a chance to discuss why the plan didn't work but as we all know sometimes the best laid plans fall apart during the event. During the event they were all relatively close together with Supreme Justice (Jay) and Mariah and Teese riding in pretty close formation until Jay was pulled for lameness. Next time around I'd definitely like to work more on the "team" aspect - prior to the ride the group were much in favour of riding in team formation but somehow didn't always put that into practice during the event. We were kept very busy during the couple of days following the ride and didn't have a chance of a team meeting to go over what we could improve or change for the next time. Over the next couple of weeks we will review the highs and lows and put together a report to be shared with Equine Canada and Endurance Canada as well as the riders. I was very proud of the group and their accomplishment - 7th in the World at an event of this calibre is amazing given the condtions we faced. I'm not sure yet, haven't had time to go over the stats closely, how many countries finished as many riders as Canada. Finishing four riders (3 on team) out of 5 starters was amazing - Yes there were tears at the final vetting! Kay, Chef d'Equipe, Canada =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. 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