Re: RC: Re: Time for a new motto --- Never!!

[BMcCrary27@aol.com]

In a message dated 12/19/1999 6:43:52 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
gesaeqfx@pe.net writes:

<< "To finish is to win" is a GOOD  motto.  It provides everyone the
 opportunity to arrive at a "personal best".  It saves a lot of horses from
 the "evils" of racing.  The "win at all costs", riders give endurance riding
 a bad name.  The sport is endurance riding not endurance racing.  Only a
 small percentage of the riders out there are actually racers.  I see a lot
 of 3,000 plus mileage horses out there and even a few with 10,000 plus
 miles.  I am in awe of these horses and the riders that got them there.  I
 bet very few of them "raced" all of their miles.  To refer to riders that go
 to complete as "Losers" is awfully arrogant.   >>

I agree!  I personally wouldn't want to change the motto, though there were 
some good ideas there and it became a sort of game after awhile.  I couldn't 
agree with you more ... that finishers are just as accomplished in their way 
as the first to finish are in theirs.  The world of competition will never 
recognize this, but I think it's great that AERC does.  I am a finisher.  If 
I top ten, I'm on Cloud Nine.  Once, just once, I was first to finish.  As I 
crossed the finish line, I asked the timer if I was the first, and she said 
yes.  It was very odd ... there were no bells, no whistles, no cheers inside 
my head.  That's when I realized that being first meant nothing to me.  I've 
had bigger thrills racing someone and coming in second.  But the biggest 
thrill I ever had was taking my homebred 5 year old mare on her first full 
distance (55 miles), starting last because she was behaving atrociously and 
coming in last, but with a strong, happy, and proud horse.  SHE knew what she 
had accomplished and trumpeted it to the world.  I learned so much about her 
that day, that was what I was so thrilled about.  You keep on being proud of 
being a finisher, and I'll be right there with you.

Barbara


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