Re: Re: RE: worlds youngest rider

["navion" <navion@lightspeed.net>]

> put that ahead of their kids! And I have heard of endurance kids that are
> sick and tired of the whole thing, but their parents are wrapped up in
> accumulating miles and getting some "family" award.
>

    I'm not disagreeing with the gist of your post, but I am curious about
this statement.  What kids would this be referring to?  The Monsavias's
family was first in 98 and they never seemed to want to quit. They were at
Tevis in 99 and 2000, not after the family award but still riding together.
   We won in 99, we were in hot competition with the Eilands, we had to go
to far away rides every other weekend in the last 3 months to assure a win.
I suggested we throw in the towel at Manzanita, I didn't enjoy going so far
and asking so much. You should have heard the kids howl, they wanted that
award, as silly as it is. So we stuck it out and I'm very glad. I learned
more about horsemanship in that hectic schedule, and enjoyed the tremendous
bond we formed as a family being together so much.  And this year we did
Tevis and then Swanton 4 weeks later, then they wanted to go to Virginia
City 4 weeks after that, I had to say, no thats enough, the horses need the
break plus so do I with the driving.
   We were with the Johnson's at Bear Valley, this years apparent winners. I
didn't see any sick and tired kids, I saw the same kind of pleasure that we
got.  They also were backing off as they were getting tired from the
gruelling schedule, but the confidence and pride from doing that together as
a family was obvious.
   So which family is it??

Jim Mitchell