RE: Why don't riders like to be judged? -- Let's get the facts straight

[David Bennett <benamil@juno.com>]

You wrote:
>>Angie, Angie, how many of these rides have you been to?  And, clearly,
things 
are waaaaay different in your neck of the woods if the answer is more
than 
one.  There is this thing called 'forward motion' and normally before a
P&R 
you are required to move forward for a specified distance at a specified
gate 
usually a trot, (depending on terrain) a couple of miles or so.  Then the

horses get to the vet check and are graded on pulse recovery.
>>

I can vouch for what Angie said here.  I have personally ridden 'safety'
on six of these rides.  Quite a
few times I have ridden behind the "Open" riders and come upon them
sitting on the ground smoking
a cigarette while their steaming horses just stood there.  I asked the
first time I saw this about what was
going on.  The answer was that there was a p&r about 1/4 mile ahead and
they did not want to get
there too early.  By the time they did get to the p&r the horses had been
standing for 20 minutes and 
their pulses were down...   Also, I have come up to a long line of horses
standing in a sunny road, 
waiting to have a pulse check.  Their riders were standing there waving
stuff at them to create a breeze.
Ridiculous!  If my horse needs to be cooled then I put water on him...

On one occasion I rode a couple of miles to get water for a very heavy
quarter horse that was having
a lot of trouble after climbing a big hill.   The riders were judged on
standing in the stirrups as they climbed that hill.
The horsemanship judge and the vet judge were hiding behind a tree
halfway up the hill to see if the
riders were standing in the stirrups as they went uphill.
But nobody thought of the consequences of one of those horses going fast
enough to need its rider
to stand.  So there was a 'horsemanship judge' and a 'veterinary judge'
and neither they nor the other 
ride officials that walked to that spot could do anything but say that
the horse was too hot.  I 
brought back some gallon jugs of water that could be poured on him to
help cool him.  He needed 
LOTS of water but the little he got helped....

I no longer volunteer to help on these rides because of what I have seen
and the attitudes of many doing
them.   Why did I help in the first place?  Because it was a way to teach
my green horse to go slow
at the back of a crowd of other horses.  Also, I started out with an open
mind willing to learn.  What I found was that many of the 'veteran' NATRC
riders were far from model horsemen and didn't 
have a clue about many things involved with caring for a trail horse.  
They definitely do not have a
corner on good horsemanship.   I know that all CTR is not alike and
varies from one area of the 
country to another.  Many competitive rides are similar to the best of
endurance rides and have a lot
to offer.  But the NATRC that I have seen has left me with a poor opinion
of it.  
Nowadays I just spot the pack a few minutes at the start of  a 50-mile
endurance ride.  So far this has
worked well...

Dave Bennett
Rocketeer - 450 miles completed and just started
Chickamauga, Georgia
___________________________________________________________________
Get the Internet just the way you want it.
Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month!
Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=