Re: RC:LD & kids competing etc.

[Trailrite@aol.com]

    I'm not going to say much about LD.  The only thing I will say about it, 
is that it is a good stepping stone to get a feel and education on and about 
endurance riding.  Some people really don't think that they can ride 50 
miles.  Most of what I hear is, "Maybe my horse will make it but I don't 
think I could."  So LD sounds less challenging and after a few of these, most 
of the people that told me 50 is to far, try the 50 later.
    With kids competing is another story.  I do a lot of 1st time adults & 
kids escorting on their first rides.  I also sponsor a lot of kids.  I do 
make them listen, to the vet at checks and I'll even ask them later, "What 
are your scores and what do you think it means."  They do almost all of their 
own cleaning, tacking, (unless they are real short), etc.  Anyway, what I 
saying is, we treat it as an education experience all the way, from loading 
to go, to returning to back to the ranch.  My clients work hard to get to 
that day and after care can be up to 2 days or even a week.
    The main problem I have is non recognition of first time riders and 
Juniors.  In Aug. we had 9 riders, 4 were new riders, 3 juniors.  All of them 
completed except 1 jr. rider.  After the ride, we got ready to go to the 
award banquet.  It was posted in our ride packet as starting at 6:00pm.  When 
we got across to the area (all happy and such!) we found that since most 
riders wanted to go home early, that they had the banquet at 4:00pm.  I can't 
tell you how let down we were!   No Awards!
    Later, this last race, I had a 9 yr. jr. rider.  First timer.  She did 
the 50 on her sisters horse.  She was a real trooper, never complained, 
always took care of her horse.  Three weeks before she did conditioning (not 
that her horse needed much, but we didn't let her know that).  The weekend 
before we rode 26 miles in very hot weather and she did great.  She and her 
horse completed the 50 with great scores and when we went to the banquet 
well, if you want to call it that, there was one, and they read the names off 
so fast that you had the feeling that we were all taking up to much Ride 
Management time.  It breaks my heart that there is so little hoopla to award 
times.  No, you don't need to do it for the award but for new riders and 
junior riders, it does mean something.  A little recognition, while may be 
Mom & Dad can smile and clap for their efforts would be nice.
    I feel not enough is done for the 1st time completers and mostly the jr. 
riders.  If we want encourage children to stay in this sport, maybe we should 
make it a little more rewarding.
    I for one, am sick of cheap non rewarding banquets!
Tammy
 


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