Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

People on Ridecamp probably know the truth of the saying about how you 
can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink even more than 
any other group.  Ridecamp is an extraordinary source of knowledge and 
experience that I have been wallowing in for years now.  Do I ride 
endurance? Nope.  We don't have any that you want to talk about, but my 
horses are healthy and happy from what I've learned here.  Endurance is 
the one equestrian discipline that really is about horses being horses 
and doing what they do best....moving at various speeds across country. 
 Okay, there are boundaries that wouldn't be there in nature, but the 
Educated Rider tries to work with those boundaries rather than banging 
his/her head against them.

Can you get people to learn if they don't want to bother to read the 
manual before they turn on the machine?  Not by any polite 
means....it's going to take some coercion.  I've seen up close what 
happens when you toss prize money into a pool of newbies....horse 
carcasses.  Not pretty.  The only way to make them learn is to lay 
sanctions on mistakes.  There will always be some idiot who looks at a 
horse as a means to a financial end and is willing to sacrifice the 
horse for that end. If you are ingenious about your sanctions, you 
might be able to stop them halfway through...vet checks help a lot.  At 
least you can keep them from doing it twice and if idiots are aware of 
the price of screwing up before they start (and a dead horse isn't 
always a price that worries them), you might get them to read the 
manual.

When I was doing research to help set up an endurance association in 
Egypt I looked at the various national organisations and how they 
introduced riders to the rigours of endurance.  The British step system 
seemed good to me in that it enforced a learning curve.  The Australian 
endurance logbooks also help to enforce appropriate behaviour.  There 
are any number of ways to do it and none of them are foolproof.  
Equicidal maniacs will always slip through, but you can decrease the 
likelihood.  Did our local association try to use any of this?  Nope, 
they set up a group very like the FEI with all the same problems.

You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him learn.

Maryanne
Cairo

On Saturday, Aug 23, 2003, at 21:05 Africa/Cairo, Charles wrote:

> How do we get that information to the people who are just starting 
> out??
> ?
> I know to take it slow because I've been reading, crewing, and 
> following this list.? But what about someone who is new, has a horse 
> they want to ride and has signed up already?
> ?
> Charles


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