ridecamp@endurance.net: Reply to letter in EN

Reply to letter in EN

Carol Barrett (cbar@lightspeed.net)
Wed, 6 Aug 1997 16:02:11 -0700 (PDT)

The following is a Letter to the Editor that I FAXed today to Endurance
News in response to Charmaine Driscoll's letter in the August issue. I was
on vacation when the bruhaha over the Wine Country 50 occured. However, I
felt compelled to respond to her letter and thought I would share my
response with other Ridecampers. Some may agree with my opinions and some
may not. I don't think, though, you'll find too many ride managers who will
disagree with my views.

********************************

August 6, 1997

Endurance News
Attn: Mailbag
C/O American Endurance Ride Conference
701 High St. Ste 203
Auburn, CA 95603

Hats off to Charmaine Driscoll. Your defense of the Wine Country 50 ride
manager is commendable. It seems these days folks automatically take their
ride complaints to public forums without the courtesy of contacting the
ride manager first and giving them the opportunity to correct problems or,
if need be, apologize for mishaps on their rides.
This happened to me last year. As a first-time ride manager, putting on a
first-time ride, I had lots of opportunity to screw-up. Well, I did, though
not intentionally (I have yet to meet a ride manager who deliberately goes
out to put on a bad ride!) I had one rider who, instead of calling me and
voicing her concerns and objections, immediately wrote to the AERC asking
them not to re-sanction my ride and generally haranguing my "incompetence".
She then voiced her grievances over the internet. Yet, not once did she
pick-up the phone and call me to let me know of her displeasure with my
ride.
Where has this attitude that all rides MUST be perfect come from? If it
prevails within the endurance community, I assure you that our
opportunities for enjoying this sport will be severely curtailed. The
reason I became so involved in this sport was that participants seemed to
be more forgiving of others than those involved with other equestrian
activities.
Quite frankly, I wouldn't blame Jessica at all if she decides to give the
entire endurance community the great, big proverbial "finger".

Carol Barrett
Tehachapi, CA

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