Ridecamp: [RC] Your Ride History/Pulls

    I have to agree with Frank.  The heroes (and heroines) of this sport are
the ones without the egos involved in the horse or rider pull rate, namely
our horses.
    The stigma of being pulled is something that has always bothered me.
For whatever reason, a pull  from a ride is something that shows we (the
sport) have more than only completing a ride as an important aspect of what
we do.  It shows our care and compassion whether rider option or a vet pull.
In the end, as our sport goes, it's the pull aspect which shows our
understanding of the horse as our partners not our inanimate vehicles.
Other equine ventures can't boast a "pull rate"  of course, because they
don't have one.  We can be truly proud of our attention to this.
    Words are everything, maybe we need to come up with a term for not
finishing a ride which has no negative stigma attached to it but
communicates the concern we have for our partners in not continuing the
ride.  How about instead of pulled, use the word "rested", maybe
"withdrawn", how about "sadly retired today", any other ideas?"
    I agree also with those that have said that the pull rate indicates
something about the horse or rider and therefore is important.  What that
rate indicates is not always something that can be understood with just
statistics.  More work needs to be done here in the understanding of those
numbers.  Australian Log book system?

Randy Winter
Colorado


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