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Re: [RC] who is captain of the ship - Joe LongOn Thu, 30 Oct 2003 14:15:59 -0800, "Barbara McCrary" <bigcreekranch@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: I think I pretty much agree with you, Bob. The placing in a ride has true significance. Yes, indeed!!!! But if people keep worrying about how terrible it is having the occasional horse die (and I'm not suggesting it's OK, mind you), then what is the solution but to stop the speed motive? We want our cake, but want to be able to eat it, too. If we want racing, then we are going to have to accept the fact that a horse will die occasionally. Unless, of course, we find some way to prevent death. I don't have a truly useful solution, does anyone else? If we adopted your "food for thought" scenario, with no speed-related awards of any kind, and no one raced in any way, horses would still sometimes die on rides. We will never eliminate equine deaths on distance rides (or any other organized activity with horses), all we can do -- and what a realistic goal needs to be -- is to minimize them. We could never eliminate racing, though. Even with no speed-related awards, some riders would still race each other, just for the fun of doing it. It's in the blood, it's in the history, it's in the tradition, and it's in the competitive nature of human AND horse. Endurance Rides are not *just* races, they are more than races, and not everyone wishes to race. But Endrurance Rides *ARE* races. Take that out and they won't be endurance rides. One of the most fundamental qualities of distance-riding sports is that they are competitions. And no matter how you slice and dice it, a competitive measure of endurance in a horse/rider team is not just going the distance, but doing so faster than the next horse/rider team. That is where the ultimate test of "quality" of the team lies. I am not apologetic that I am a rider who loves to race for First Place. I'm proud of the success I've had doing that, and I look forward to doing a lot more of it. If the only riders near me are in other weight divisions, no matter -- I'll race them anyway, for the sheer joy of it. BTW, for those who claim that there is no meaningful difference between endurance rides and LD rides -- that they are just different categories of the same experience -- this is the fundamental difference: this test of endurance QUALITY (with racing) requires more than 25 or 35 miles. Even 50 miles on an easy trail is not enough, but the AERC had to draw a line somewhere and we chose to draw it at 50 miles (70 to 80 miles is more like it, but the logistics weigh against that becoming our standard minimum endurance distance). -- Joe Long jlong@xxxxxxxx http://www.rnbw.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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