Re: RC: LD

[DreamWeaver <karen@chaton.gardnerville.nv.us>]

>AND BC} THEY GET THE SAME QUALITY OF AWARDS AS THE OTHERS. TO SAY THEY
>ARE NOT ENDURANCE RIDERS IS ABSURD.THEY CONDITION THEIR HORSES JUST LIKE
>ALL THE SO CALLED ENDURANCE RIDERS.


You have got to be kidding, right?  Anybody thinks that it takes the same 
thing to condition a horse for a 25 mile ride as it does a 
100...well.....just hasn't done it.

It's really sad that more of the experienced riders do not post their 
opinions.  They will only end up being accused to being snooty and looking 
down upon somebody who rides a shorter distance.  The people who read these 
posts seem to have a chip on their shoulder and take things the wrong 
way.  They are still not getting the point that most of us are trying to 
make - that allowing racing on 25 mile rides is not in the best interest of 
the horses, or the sport.  If you've got a horse that can do that, then 
fine.  Just don't expect to receive the same recognition and respect 
somebody gets for riding 100 miles.  That doesn't make the 100 mile rider a 
better person - it just means that they have spent years working and 
conditioning and putting forth a great deal of effort to get there.  To 
give a 100 mile rider the same recognition a 25 miler gets is a slap in the 
face -- is that such a difficult concept to understand?

I started both of my horses in Limited Distance.  I've also taken half a 
dozen people on their first ride and allowed several people to ride my 
horses in those rides when they did not have one of their own (even 
juniors).  I've got quite a few friends who are doing Limited Distance 
rides this year for various reasons.  They are putting their horse first 
and choosing to be conservative, which is a good thing.  I don't look down 
on anybody for riding 25 or 30 miles.  I just don't choose to jump up and 
down and and get all excited because they think they are hot stuff for 
winning a race.  I think that most of the newbie riders (on ridecamp as 
well) have their horses best interest at heart and are interested in 
learning how to rate their horses and care for them from their very first 
ride.  Yet there are some that show up at the ride and just take off like 
they were shot out of a slingshot and then end up wondering why they got 
pulled when their horses finished first but they didn't recover lower than 
72 an hour after they came in.  Until you've been to enough rides and had 
enough experiences you can't really form an opinion on things like this, 
now can you?  Maybe you've only ridden in one region and as we all know, 
things are not done the same way all over.

k




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