Well, racing has been associated with horses
since time immemorial. The Greeks, the Romans and many tribes before them. The
Mongols, even the first settlers in this country raced their horses.
And after all these centuries, endurance the
epitome of true racing, is facing a breed of rider not enthused with speed?
ATRC, American Trail Ride Association just does not do it for me.
Bob
Bob Morris Morris Endurance Enterprises Boise, ID
-----Original Message----- From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Barbara
McCrary Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 1:44 PM To:
McGann, Barb; ridecamp Subject: Re: [RC] who is captain of the
ship
A good part of my questions are
meant to prod people into thinking about racing and the possible resulting
damage to horses. Part of it is "tongue in cheek". Part of it is
playing "devil's advocate". And part of it is directed to the
possibility of some other way to conduct endurance rides, since most people
agree that speed is a "killer". I'm not even sure whether I even like
the idea myself, but I thought I would throw it out there for people to
contemplate. Maybe it will get people to thinking about other
possibilities.
I'm sitting here trying to honestly
imagine what a ride like that would be like. If we didn't award speed,
what would we award? Best Conditon?
Ok, so 50 or 60 riders get together to
go for a looong trail ride. You gather at the starting line and
everyone moseys out of camp. Some people want to walk, some want to
trot and a few might even want to canter, so you start spreading out along
the trail. Ride all day with no pressure. Finish the ride and
stand for Best Condition (everyone would get to stand for it, since placings
wouldn't determine anything). The speed element would have to be taken
out of it, too, so the only things that would count are horse condition and
rider weight (as a heavy-weight rider myself - woohoo!). Since horse
condition is at least partially related to how fast you rode, we would have
a 30-way tie for Turtle award!
Now, since the only challenge left is
against the trail (certainly not other riders and not against your personal
best time, etc), what do you want to bet that the ride managers will start
saying, well lets make the trail a REAL challenge. Lets put those
riders up over Mt. Baldy and through the glaciers, that'll be a real
test. (Been there, done that...don't get me started about the 50 mile
ride that the winner took over 9 1/2 hrs).
Also, since the ride vets will have a
hell of a time judging 50 or 60 horses at the end and determining BC, we
would need to evolve a complicated point system to assign values to each
parameter judged all through the ride, so we wouldn't have 10-way ties on
BC. (The more points possible, the less chance of ties). The
vets wouldn't have to do as much vetting, but they'd have to do a lot more
"judging". Of course, there would be a lot of "Well, the reason I
didn't win is that judge(vet) doesn't like me".
Since I am a mid-pack or
back-of-the-pack rider, I'm not automatically against this, just that I'm
not sure what the allure would be to get me to drive hundreds of miles,
spents thousands of $, to do group trail rides. If this was what would
draw us, then why aren't we doing NATRC or Chief Joseph trail rides which
are readily available?
Its just that there is something really
special about cruising along thinking you are 15th and finding out you were
really 9th! Or that you were 45th out of 90 - on that particular day,
you and your horse performed better than 45 others. And having
experienced show and NATRC, that was the thing that drew me to this
sport - the fact that you are competing against the clock! There's not
shades of gray, no "he didn't like me", just your performance measured
by an impartial clock.
Barb McGann, AERC #840
-----Original Message----- From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Barbara
McCrary Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 12:16 PM To:
Howard Bramhall; ridecamp Subject: Re: [RC] who is captain of
the ship
If we didn't award speed, would
the problems go away? What would happen if we only went out to ride
for the pleasure, the experience, and the adventure? What would
happen if AERC did not recognize speed? Would everyone quite the
sport?
