Re: RC: Qualification Change for Nationals: New Stats

[DreamWeaver <nvrider@charter.net>]

At 09:22 PM 2/7/2002 -0800, Tami Lange wrote:
>What do you think?  Tami Lange

In order to really figure out anything, you'd have to look at the long term 
results -- how many rides did those horses go on to complete, and how many 
ride seasons, etc.  How many horses have long careers that start out 
racing.  How many don't actually have "careers" because they started out 
racing.  How many start out slow and do well, or start out slow and still 
don't do well.   Without knowing the intent of the riders many things can 
never be known.  Some people may lose interest in the sport and leave, 
while others withdraw because they no longer have a capable horse.  I know 
after being around a few years that I've seen enough horses come and go and 
know enough to realize that the more consistent a horse is ridden, 
generally the longer it lasts.  New riders have a learning curve and it 
takes awhile to learn those things.  Some people ride thousands of miles 
and never learn.

I think the problem I have with some of the inexperienced riders is that 
they don't know how to read their horses, and quite frankly, our horses can 
do quite a lot of amazing things running on adrenalin.  The ones that I 
really have a problem with are the ones that you catch up to on the trail, 
and then they insist on keeping up with you, and since you are the only one 
with half a brain you slow down because you know they are going to hurt 
their horse if you don't.  One time (well, lots more than once) this 
happened to me and I told the rider that her horse looked tired.  She 
assumed I was trying to get her to slow down, so I could beat her (for like 
30th place, pfffft).  I don't think she made it out of the next vet check, 
but that is why I think riders that haven't done several rides on a horse 
should be competing against real experienced riders in a championship 
ride.  When most people get more experience, they start to understand this, 
some things you probably won't understand until you've experienced it a few 
times.

k