Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Eco-challenge

Hi Bill,

I appreciate your comments and clarification.  It still seems a bad idea for
me, for several reasons.  One, it takes years of riding experience to have
both good balance riding at any kind of speed, and good hands, to not be
balancing by hanging on the horses mouth.  Secondly, I would think it would
be difficult for an inexperienced rider on an unknown horse, to have any
feeling or knowledge of how that horse moves and if the gait if off any
(i.e., the horse comming up lame)
I know experienced riders hop on strange horses and do Tevis all the time,
but they have years of riding and horse knowledge. Still, each horse is
different, and I would be extremely reluctant to loan out any of my horses
for anything like this!  How will a new rider know if the horse is slowing
down becuase it is a bit lazy, tired, or perhaps starting to tie up?
If the horse is extremely eager and wants to go, how will they know they are
riding past that horses physical ability?
Given that these are animals with no way of communication except "horse
language", whch experienced riders often misinterpret, seems like too much
opportunity for abuse, with non-horse people, who perhaps may be in
competitive mode.  Horses are NOT bicycles or kayaks, to be discarded when
that leg of the challenge is done!
Karen
----- Original Message -----
From: "William Rice" <WER@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2002 6:46 AM
Subject: [RC] Eco-challenge


Hi all,
As one who is a newbie to your world but an "old" hand at ultrarunning and
adventure racing I am putting my $0.02 in.  Most adventure racing teams (as
earlier mentioned) are quite serious about who they allow to join.  I think
you will find that the selected rider will do as I am and will be taking
plenty of lessons on riding and horses in general.  Also the earlier post
about going slow is correct.  The team time for each leg stops when the last
member reaches the checkpoint so getting there first is no advantage.
Anyway I love these discussions and am looking forward to actually riding
some of these events instead of running them on foot.
Bill In Maine


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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=