No!! You are wrong .
You do not 'race' against yourself. you "compete" with your level of
experience, the condition of your horse and your self, the particular trail and
distance. You do not race to outrun your level of these things. " To
finish is to win" And "FIT TO CONTINUE" is the battle cry. No, it is not a race.
When you outrun yourself, your horse is in trouble. When you
loose the focus of these things and focus on getting in front of someone else,
your horse is in danger. It is an Endurance Ride.
If someone wants the win, and he/she remains focused on the horse and their
level of the afore mentioned things, and if he thinks he can get in front
of someone and remain focused on the things, he is not racing he is still
riding.
I agree with everything up to here, but
how can I word that so that a total novice can understand it & still have it
spark that competitive challenge that exists within all human beings?
Also, regarding your last sentence & not meaning to flame, but merely to
understand your thinking, does that mean that the sport of horse racing should
really be called "horse riding to go as fast as possible"?
The goal cannot be to
win a race. It must remain to complete a ride. He is a horseman, and he is
riding, not racing. He is focused on the important elements of the Ride. Which
are completing sound and safe.
okay, then why does anyone bother to trot
or canter? There must be some element that I can articulate that seperates
Endurance from pleasure trail riding besides just a T-shirt.
Giving your article a
"race" face will give the wrong impression to the unknowing people you are
directing it toward. And so I urge you to call it what we, the Endurance Riders,
call it . An Endurance Ride.
Interesting statement. Please
clarify what qualifies one to call themselves "an Endurance Rider". This
could be something informative that I can use in my article.
I will let others
comment on the other points of your article. The word that got me
stirred up was "race." I would suggest that you do some rides. Get
involved. Annie George
Excellent advice and I do look forward to
others' comments, but please, let's not get into any arguments over this.
I expect opinions to differ and I did expect the word "race" to get some sort of
reaction. I did not use that word to incite anyone, but as an avid
Endurance groupie for several years, it has remained unclear to me - which word
is correct, ride or race?
Thanks, Annie, and please don't give up
on me. My husband will attest to the fact that I am trainable!
:-)
Antoinette