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Linda, you hit the nail on the head with your post
below. This is one of the best posts I've seen on the subject
yet.
Heidi
Riding endurance brings out the kid in me...
I love to ride endurance (though haven't this year,
unfortunately) and while I ride a top-ten caliber horse, it's
not about competing at all.... I've reached lunch in 8th place and goofed off
for 90 minutes.
So, maybe children riding endurance isn't about competing...
maybe kids do it because they love it, and love it because it's
about adventure and challenge, riding new trails, getting to travel
and camp with their horse and family, enjoying membership in a
nomadic band of folks...
Perhaps it's having non-stop attention from an adult they
respect or admire for however long they're in the saddle...
I use to love to watch Maryben ride in to a vet
check with a train of kids... THAT is one of my first endurance memories, those
kids looking so satisfied with who and where they were... endurance impressed me
because it was so inclusive.
Seeing Maryben and those 5 kids... that's when
I realized I could be a kid again, if only for 50 or 100 miles... years later,
Julie Suhr reminded to be a kid when we had a spontaneous dash for 8th place at
a ride two years ago... not many kids can out-whoop Julie Suhr, or go flying out
of sight so unexpectedly!
Maybe it's all about being kid-like, no matter how
old we are. My friend Steve from Monterey dresses in tights befitting a jester,
even though he left his 40's behind a bush on some long forgotten
trail. Trilby abandons age time and time again, along with so many
others.
Kids love attention, they love opportunities to
glow, to be seen as competent and worthy.... to be accepted as a peer, at least
on some level. And to laugh, explore, relax...sit around camp fires
and...
Don't be so much of an adult that you forget how
much FUN endurance is. It's a hell of a lot of
fun.
Who
knows why these kids ride... they're individuals and all have their own reasons.
I seriously doubt, though, that they ride endurance because either they or their
parents cherish competition.
Maybe they do it for the adventure and sheer joy of it. That's the reason
I do it.
Kids
are people too. Small ones, with less experience.... but a great sense of
adventure.
Linda Cowles
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