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Re: RC: Posted today on a mostly Dressage Riders' BB . . .
Good response Angie, I enjoyed it!
Nan
On Tue, 27 June 2000, Rides 2 Far wrote:
>
> Patti, please feel free to forward this to their list and they are
> welcome to respond to me.
> Angie
> > I just finished reading my latest issue of the Chronicle. In it, was >
> an > article about a May 100 mile ride in in Atlanta or Alabama (I >
> forget). > Anyway, the temperature was 100 degrees. Twelve people did
> this > race. Some > other entries dropped out due to the heat.
>
> Hello,
> First, let me set my tone. I am not feeling angry or argumentative, just
> sort of a "heavy sigh" tone. I wrote the article in the Chronicle, so I
> suppose I am a good person to respond to your post. Well, I tried to do
> a good job of making the reader feel as if they were there and grasp the
> challenge of successfully completeing a 100 mile ride with a horse.
> Perhaps I went overboard. I described the heat as oppressive THE DAY
> BEFORE THE RACE (though I never said a word about 100 degrees...upper
> 80's lower 90's I think). The day of the race we got a break with cloud
> cover.
>
> Now, I assume you have never been to an endurance race. I am also
> guessing, perhaps erroneously that you are involved in showing horses. I
> guess you would find it amusing that though I compete in 100's, last week
> when my daughter took her riding lesson at a jumping barn I was appalled
> that the large Quarter Horse who had just given a 10 year old child a one
> hour lesson in a riding ring wasn't offered a drink before starting
> another lesson. As an endurance rider I had the overwhelming urge to
> give the horse a complete sponge off (the instructor brushed off my
> suggestion) between lessons rather than just switch saddles and knock the
> sand off the girth area. I guess cruelty is in the eyes of the beholder.
>
> In the article I told of a horse who was pulled at the finish of the 100
> mile race for lameness. I'd like to point out that I have seen horses
> win ribbons in the show ring who were as lame as that horse. We in
> endurance riding have set an incredibly high standard for ourselves and
> we inforce it. For a horse to get completion in an endurance race he
> must be judged "fit to continue". No, we do not pace them just to "make
> it across the line". They have to look good enough to go out again. Do
> you know that we have a ZERO drug policy? We can't even give biotin with
> yukka in it or it will test. We do NOT cover up pain or lameness. The
> horses have to be 100%.
>
> Now, I can imagine how to an outsider a 100 mile in one day race would
> seem impossible. I have done several myself and when I just think about
> it, it still seems impossible. BUT, we are thinking like people, not
> like horses...Endurance horses that is. I have tried showing, and I have
> seen MANY sour horses (ulcers are a big problem). I spent some time on
> the race track and saw many unhappy horses. I also saw quite a few die
> in the short time I was there. I have participated in endurance riding
> for 13 years and could count the number of sour horses I have seen on 2
> fingers. It doesn't make sense to me either, but they love it. The
> winner of that ride looked better than many a trail horse I see out in
> the parks on weekends. We HAVE to do it right, or we can't do it at all.
>
> The first time I did a 100 I was so worried about whether my horse would
> hate me for it. I seriously wished I could do it on 2 horses so I could
> do 100 miles myself without putting one horse through it. Guess what? My
> horse had a ball. At 90 miles he was unsaddled and eating peacefully at
> the trailer. When I saddled him up and climbed on, his ears and tail
> went up and he trotted happily out of camp. I never believed people when
> they said, "the horse comes back after sundown" but it's true. After 50
> miles they don't seem to get more tired, they just get hungry. It's more
> like a person doing a long hike than a run.
>
> If you want to know what makes me sad it's to see an Arabian Horse, which
> is bred to go, go, go locked up in a 10x10 stall and treated like a work
> of art until it starts throwing itself up against the walls, or to see a
> 16.2 Warmblood who stares blankly out the door of his stall weaving.
>
> People who have never been to an endurance ride picture a horse who is
> pulled as a horse whose rider has pushed them beyond their limits, and
> they come crawling into the vet check on their last legs. I've had a non
> endurance rider this week try to sell me a horse that they considered a
> "sure winner" in endurance because it has never been tired and insists on
> being in front and won't give up till it drops. That's the last horse I'd
> want to compete with. The horses that get in trouble tend to be the ones
> who are so "into" the race that they are dragging the rider around in
> circles at the vet check and wanting to leave with every horse that goes
> out. These horses are watched closely by the vets and pulled the moment
> their gut sounds or hydrations tests indicate that they are not handling
> the stress of competition.
>
> As far as lameness. In endurance riding a "lameness" pull is as often as
> not for a stone bruise. Compare that to horses in other disciplines who
> are bowing tendons, fracturing sesemoids, and stressing hocks.
>
> Now, WHY would we ask a horse to go 100 miles. That's easy, you do it
> when 50 isn't far enough any more. Sound rediculous? Why don't you stay
> at training level? I went for a 2 mile walk this morning. I ran up one
> hill. It almost killed me. To make me do a 5K would be cruel. I am
> built like a King Ranch Quarter Horse. However, I was a good softball
> player. Does that mean that all marathons are insane cruelty and just
> because it would kill me nobody else would enjoy one? I don't think so.
>
> Right now I am writing a humor piece for the Chronicle's endurance issue.
> I am asking the question, "Is Endurance For You?" I would guess in your
> case the question is no. That's O.K. I took one dressage lesson with my
> endurance horse and though the instructor seemed to really like him and
> thought I'd done a decent job with him, by the end of the lesson he was
> really getting ticked off and bucked for the first time in the 5 years.
> He hated it. If I locked him up in a stall and trained him for
> dressage...that would be cruelty for HIM. Not your horse, mine.
>
> I'll be going back to The Liberty Run in Augusta, GA in October.
> Hopefully I'll be entered in the 100 miler. I'd love to have you come
> crew for me. Ya wanna?
>
> Angie McGhee & Kaboot (2000 miles)
> Rides2far@juno.com (appropriate considering your comments.) >eg<
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