Re: RC: does anyone ride

[Lynne Glazer <lynne@glazer.org>]

Dear Terry,  New2sport @ ????  Another anonymous poster.  <hot button pushed>

>Terry New2sport
>Hi, I have been, whats the word, lurking? I have been using a friends
>computer to access RC to see if I want to become a member. I am new to the
>sport of endurance riding and thought I could get some helpful hints.  To
>my dismay the most that seem to be on RC is complaints and trashing each
>others opinions.  There has been some useful information, but very little.
>I feel that I don't want to waste my time having to delete all the emails.
>I thought RC was about endurance/horse people.  I can see that I was
>wrong.  Why don't you guys go out and ride, really ride and give everyone
>a break.
>Terry



I feel the need to jump in and defend this forum.  The subscribers to
Ridecamp number over 1000, worldwide.  That's a lot of opinions.  These
include world champions, riders in the Hall of Fame, riders with horses in
the Hall of Fame, riders with a dozen or more Tevis or OD buckles, breeders
of endurance horses, people who haven't done many rides but manage them,
ride managers who have put on rides for a dozen years or more...and people
who don't take a leadership position and just enjoy attending rides.  And
disproportionately, people new to the sport who have lots of questions.

And not everybody posts!  If they did, this list would be out of control.
The people who post either feel they have something to contribute, or,
sadly, in some cases, an ax to grind.  I've found that people who do this
sport are people of passion, and often rugged individualists, too.  Some
people think in terms of black and white, not shades of gray, just like the
rest of humanity.  It's unfortunate that you've gotten this perspective, in
your limited sample of the posts here.

I don't personally post very often to ridecamp, and am blowing my own
personal "allowance" of no more than two a month by responding to you,
alas, to the list, since you saw fit to not include your complete email
address.  My other two were responding as the ride manager to "scummy's"
allegations (IMO, a required response) and one very constructive post on
lessons learned with the Sports Saddle.

Since 1995, I have been saving the best posts on ridecamp, and periodically
update a very thick binder that I called "the Best of Ridecamp" for my
local friends who don't have computer access but want to learn what the
sport is all about.  These number over 500 at the moment, and are divided
into 9 subjects, which range from things like Feeds and Feeding, Tack and
Equipment, to more personal areas like Ride Stories and Inspiration (the
latter, largely populated by Julie Suhr's posts).

Admittedly, going through ridecamp's archives to glean these nuggets would
be difficult.  But I urge to you to actually get out there and participate
in the sport by riding or volunteering, and don't slam the people who are
posting here on the basis of just the past few days.

It's too bad that you haven't lurked long enough to get the "good stuff".
Many of us work long and hard to promote this sport either by putting on
rides, recruiting and training new riders, and making sure that they know
how different endurance riding is than other horse sports, in terms of
sportsmanship, for example.

Perhaps, from your online experience, you haven't learned the use of the
<Delete> key.  If you see a topic that you think might be argumentative or
something you're not interested in, don't even open it.  Just Delete It.
If you are reading the digest version, I thoroughly sympathize, and
couldn't get that version myself--the thought of not being able to exercise
my keyboard shortcut to delete after reading the first few lines of a post
makes me gag.  Scrolling through pages of subjects which might not interest
you,  is what you're stuck with if you chose the digest over individual
messages.  Free choice.

There will always be subjects that are controversial, which elicit a large
amount of posts and more than the occasional "me too" sort of personal
experience posts.  These include "dogs in camp", "helmets", "breeding vs.
buying", and many more.  So read the ridecamp posting guidelines at the
ridecamp page where you made your post, and understand the parameters of
behavior here that most of us are trying to operate within.

Lynne

Norco flyers in tommorrow's mail



Ontario, CA
Norco Riverdance Ride (PS) 9/4/99
and Rem-member Me, Celesteele


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