Tom Ivers in Endurance World - my final comment

[wsabg@t-online.de (Wolfgang Schwingenheuer)]

To all of you interested in this, others hit "delete" now:

Here are my final words to this topic, after reading all your replies and
comments.
I am not answering to every single mail, just snipping out some parts.

@ Heidi Smith:
"Tom is discussing issues that are of interest to Ridecampers, and has had a
rather checkerboard history on Ridecamp, so I  would suspect that Angie
might have figured that Ridecampers might be interested in what Mr. Ivers
might be saying about their sport elsewhere."

Dear Heidi, as most of the former discussions have shown, Tom isn't talking
about things that most of the Ridecampers like to hear. Yes, there are some
of you which are interested in Tom's ideas, but those are rare. I will not
start another "Carbo War", but that topic showed well what is happening with
"strange" ideas which might be useful to ride a bit faster without hurting a
horse. What Tom is talking about is not really the sport of most
Ridecampers.

@ Annie George:
"Your remarks that your goals are "higher" or " more professional" is
exactly the attitude that irritates people. There are no better riders,
horsemen or fair and tough competitors in the world that the grass roots
riders of the U.S.A."
"So back up partner, and don't be so fast to look down your nose at the
"Finish to Win" riders."

Annie, you are interpreting unwritten things. I never ever said that riders
which are happy about finishing are worse horsemen than the winners. Every
winner started as a "Finisher", some are winning more often, some never. I
am consulting several riders here in Germany which are, currently, "Finish
to Win"-riders. But my and their goal is higher and for that you have to
work more professional. We want the win - not for every price, but if it is
possible, we take it. And we work for that.

@ Cindy Eyler:
"Sounds like TI is sucking up to the folks paying him the big bucks. Hope
his health allows him to bend over far enough to kiss the right places.
Perhaps he's also still smarting from being caught getting hoodwinked last
year.  Maybe TI figures that, if he loudly labels American endurance riders
as lazy slobs, his money guys won't pay attention to anything questionable
they hear about him."

Ridecamp is a really funny place - I can learn all those "bad" words from
you. But dear Cindy, if you are able to remember, Tom isn't that type of guy
who sucks up to someone, he kicks ass. In fact he once quits working for the
Sheik because of some dispute they are having. He isn't labeling anyone, but
just take a look who is having a very good job in the UAE, who is earning
the big money there as trainer and rider - it's the girls and guys from
France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, some of the UK and other countries in
Europe - but unfortunately very few from the USA. Just why???


@ Merryben and some others:
Again a bit misinterpretation of my words. I won't say that "locals" are bad
and "internationals" are good. I even won't say that the locals have no
ambitions. If ones ambition is to finish, that's great. If she/he then is
collecting wins - even better. If she/he is becoming a champion - BINGO! But
those are rare, the biggest part of all endurance riders is happy with the
given status and won't change anything.

@ all:
With my words "Endurance World is, IMHO, a magazin for those with "higher"
goals, with a bit more "professionalism" I didn't express exactly what I
mean. Jennifer Nice as the editor said it a bit more precisely: "However, as
is stated in the magazine's charter, the publication "focuses on the
upper-echelon of the sport.". Due to that focus, a good number of things
which are published might be interesting for all riders, but will be used
only by those "with the higher goals" (to come back to one of my words). If
I am a fairly good runner, of course I like to read what the Olympic
Champion is using to get his level of fitness. But I won't use the same
technique because I won't become Olympic Champion - I just like to run my
track and be happy. BUT: I will never get a Gold Medal for finishing a race.
Gold is dedicated for a Winner. And the Winner is - in the most cases - the
fittest, best prepared, professional working athlet. And he is the one who
is presented by the media, he is the one who is able to make some money with
his sport. You won't get sponsors for finishing 20th with the healthiest
horse. And if one is thinking about having higher goals, this also means
that he has to spend a good amount of time to achieve this. More time for
riding means less time for working, means less income. Sponsors can be a big
help here.
Winners are also those who everybody is remembering. Or can you tell me the
4th place rider of the last World Champs or those in Kansas without looking
into the archives? I can't. But I remember Becky Hart as Triple World
Champion, I remember Val and Danielle and I remember Maya Killa from France.
I also remember some of the Top Three of those events - Maggie Price in
Barcelona (but only because I was so impressed of her), Jaques David in
Kansas (only because of his big horse Nelson). Yes, you might remember one
of the others, but Winners are the ones to talk about - in every sport. Is
this really that bad? Do you really dislike saying: Our US girl Val (or
Becky) is World Champion? Or - maybe in the future - saying: XY is Olympic
Champion in endurance riding? Does that sound ugly? In my honest opinion:
NO! I like to hear that a hard, professional working endurance rider (from
wherever) is the earned Champion.

Wolfgang Schwingenheuer
Endurance Trainer&Consulter
Germany