Re: Posted today on a mostly Dressage Riders' BB . . .

["Tracey" <tracey@tbt.co.za>]

Well done, Angie.  I don't even do endurance but the attitude of some people
to this sport never ceases to amaze me.  It's like showjumpers who'll
happily put their 5yo over a five foot fence saying that eventing is
cruel.....


Tracey

>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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