riding

[Samm C Bartee <bartesc@mail.auburn.edu>]

hey guys!!  About this debate on people and attitudes.  I have been in the
position to see extreme prejudice about distances.  From both directions.
I have seen riders and ride managers really blast the LD riders for riding
the shorter distance. And then there was the "manager" who blasted the 50
milers for riding the short distance.  Go figure.  It's all a matter of
what we want to do.  It's *MY* money and I will ride the distance that I
am more comfortable with and that I think my horse can handle.  

This past weekend, I had the misfortune of watching a fellow try to kill
his horse. He didn't know any better, but he heard that if he didn't do
the 55, he wasn't really riding endurance.  I was registering the riders.
He asked me about the difference. I asked how much he rode. He said 15-20
miles per week. Said he and the horse were both very fit.  Fine, I said
try the LD and see what he thought. NO, he entered the 55.  Fine. At VC1,
his horse looked good. Vetted through with good scores. It was at 22
miles.  the next loop was 15 miles long...no hills, mostly flat dirt road
with some woods.  4 hours later this fellow had not come in.  Finally in
he walks, horse was lame on both front feet and SPENT.  This horse and
rider had no business on the 35, much less the 55, but because he was told
that he wasn't really riding endurance unless he did the 55 he opted for
that distance.  whatever. It's all about attitudes. If he had been told to
try the 35 and see how he liked it, then if he did well, he could move up
next time or stay where he was, he might have.  His horse would have
suffered less more than likely.  
Not my horse, not my responsibility, right?  wrong. I had to watch that
horse hobble on both front legs as the rider tried to decide if he wanted
to go back out on the final 20 mile loop.  AFTER the vet told him that he
really should consider pulling. She would have pulled him for real if he
had tried to go back out.   He went around telling people that she cleared
him to leave....
As for the LD riders being the ones to hurt their horses...this past
weekend it was HOT, and HUMID where we were.  1 LD horse was pulled and
wound up being treated a few hours later due to cramping.  He was the only
pull.  There were 6 pulls on the 55, me among them:-(, and 3 of those
horses needed treatment.  Two were sent to the vet school for serious
treatment.  there were a couple of others that were borderline needing
treatment--not Coujur, but others.  From my vantage point, in the VC all
day, the LD horses looked a lot better than most of the open horses at the
completion.  This is just one example.  

At Land Between the Lakes in '93, a rider doing the 100 lost his horse
briefly when a 50 miler came flying past at a canter.  The 100 miler was
off tailing and the 50 miler was on and flying.  

I was nearly unseated off my horse while I was doing a 50 miler when the
winning horse on the 25 miler at Hahira in Ga came flying past me with no
warning.  

A friends horse cramped up at the vet check waiting for the upper
distances to vet through first. SHe was courteous and let them vet ahead
of her. In the mean time, her horse who was 19 at the time, got stiff and
did not complete.  It would have been her 500 mile patch ride.  she got it
later, but still......

The SE usually does not grant preferential treatment to riders in upper
distances.  They feel that the riders will be courteous enough if the
situation demands it, and usually we are.  There are exceptions to every
rule.  

I have nearly 2000 open miles.  I don't know how much LD miles, but a good
bit.  I would really like it if everyone would quit telling everyone else
who is the best because of the distance they do.  

My point to all this?  Be kind and courteous to everyone.  It will come
back to you one day. Be mean and grouchy and it will come back to you
too......



samm--team coujur