ridecamp@endurance.net: Re: Horse Rider Combination

Re: Horse Rider Combination

Lucy Chaplin Trumbull (elsie@calweb.com)
Mon, 03 Feb 1997 11:11:18 -0800

Bob wrote:
> > Life is dull when not living on the edge!!!

Joyce Kellenberger wrote:
> ...but I do agree
> that if there wasn't some degree of the unknown that accompanies every ride
> I do, ... I might as well get a carousel horse...

Equally, life can be dull when you corner yourself into a situation
where you're too nervous to actually enjoy what you're doing. You need
to draw the line somewhere - it's not just a case of eating your
brussel sprouts because they're good for you.

> Too many people want push-button, obedient horses. There
> is no flexibility to allow the animal to express its own character. What I
> want is respect as herd leader; once that is determined the rest follows.

That's unfair. Like dismissing the high rate of divorce to "today's throw-away
society" - another topic I've just been arguing as rubbish on another list.

It may be true in some cases, but to be fair to the original writer, this
wasn't a "flash in the pan" thing - she had been working with her horse
for three years and seemed to think she was going backwards, rather than
forwards...

If you buy a horse with the intent to ride endurance/trails and that
horse is physically not suited to it - would you perservere and hope
that things "got better"? [maybe his feet will stop distintegrating/he'll
stop going lame/etc]

In the same way, the original poster bought the horse to do
endurance/trails and the horse spooks to the extent where she is
not comfortable riding it on the trail. So in this context, it
is not a suitable mount.

At what stage should one admit "this just isn't working"? It's a
disappointing thing to face - but once you've made that decision,
in the long run, you'll enjoy riding much more.

-- 
**************************************************************
Lucy Chaplin Trumbull - elsie@calweb.com
Displaced English person in Sacramento, CA 

http://www.calweb.com/~elsie http://www.calweb.com/~trouble **************************************************************

Home Events Groups Rider Directory Market RideCamp Stuff