K S SWIGART

["webmaster" <webmaster@endurancehorses.com>]

Tina,

I think you might be onto something here!  If Kat has had a moment of
clarity then I suspect that she will not be riding Caspers Park Challenge
this year as she has for the past two years.  Caspers is a local ride that
is held in October in Orange County, CA and the fifty comes back to base
camp three times for VC's & holds and has four loops.  I will keep you
posted as I am doing the computer work for the Ride Manager and will let all
of you suspense ridden Ridecampers know when you can breath again.

Salim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: tina hicks [mailto:tina@liveonthenet.com]
> Sent: Friday, July 07, 2000 7:36 AM
> To: ridecamp
> Subject: RC: Fundamental Differences in Motivation (was 3rd loop?)
>
>
> K S SWIGART   katswig@earthlink.net wrote:
> I cannot EVEN imagine riding endurance this way.  Clearly the
> people who ride endurance in such areas (looping back to camp on
> four times on the same 12.5 mile trail to get 50 miles in) are
> motivated differently than I am.
>
> It begins to make sense now why people become obsessed by
> competition, awards, riding times, etc.  They don't go to rides
> for the same reason that I do...I go for the trail.  If you go
> for the trail, then all that other stuff is unimportant fluff.
> Nice if you have it, but irrelevant in the scheme of things.
> ===============
> Kat, I usually find your posts thought provoking, well-written and
> enjoyable but I can't be quiet on this one. You've drawn a pretty crass
> correlation here I think. That people who do looping back to camp rides
> are obsessed by miles, awards, etc...???? Hmmm....funny how a _large_
> percentage of the high mileage/award receiving horse/rider combos are
> from regions where they don't do back to camp loops.
>
> You also state that there's nothing wrong with those of us who continue
> to do it even tho we don't have access to all kinds of spectacular trail
> - how nice of you to give us your blessing and allow us lowly "loop back
> to camp" riders to participate in your sport :).
>
> So....you do this sport for the new trail. Well, I also go for the trail
> even tho it's not always new trail. I go because I enjoy seeing other
> people at the rides from season to season. I go because I want to see if
> I can do better than on the last ride -_whatever_ my idea of better is.
> I go because completing a ride is an accomplishment. I go because I
> don't have access to 4 or more complete checks on my horse by a vet on a
> training ride. I go because nothing beats the feeling of trucking down
> the last 5 miles of trail on a horse with tons of energy.
>
> I go because I just like to be out on my horse on trails. I go because I
> don't know any other way to endurance rides other than looping back to
> camp. Do I sometimes wish our rides were like yours where every segment
> is different? Sure, that would be great - but that's not the way it is
> here so I do it the way it's offered.
>
> I have 1000 miles in 5 years of doing this, a small handful of top tens,
> one BC, the rest are middle to back of the pack finishes. Obviously, I
> am NOT doing it for the miles, awards, or because I am obsessed
> by the competition.
>
> You're right Kat, we are all motivated differently in a pretty
> fundamental way - some us see more than just one facet of the sport.
>
> Tina
>
> And you needn't worry about trailering to the SE for any rides either -
> you wouldn't like it here :)
>
>
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