 |
Re: [RC] [RC] racing and "racing" - Maryanne Stroud GabbaniI'm working on getting some of my horses ready to do the only endurance around here worth doing, the local association LD 40 km (25 mile) race/rides. There's no real prize for winning but I do know that plenty of the riders like to win. I'd like to finish mid pack with a sane sound horse.Most of those rides over the last couple of years have become more reasonable after being started in the wake of the FEI big purse/high stakes races of 90 to 120 km. There are the FEI rides but you have to be on a certain list to even be told about them, so I'm not interested. The horse that I'd most like to take to one of these LD events is a mare that is so competitive that I worry about being able to use her. I've had this mare since she was 4 yrs old and she simply LOVES to run, first and always. She will fight to keep in front even when she's tired, when her leg hurts, when she had a broken sesamoid due to a big buck in deep sand before she tore off.... Racing is part of the mind set of a horse that wants to go out for long distances, but that is racing just for the hell of it, not for the $20 thou you can win if you come first. Or the $200 thou that you can sell a winning horse for. I would be the last to say that no one can get hurt when racing for fun....the sesmoid and a year's rest spoke for itself. It's a fine line and you all are trying to draw it in a darker crayon or maybe red lipstick so novices and idiots and people who just aren't paying that much attention can see it. You can tinker with things and do your best but it will never be failsafe. I wish it were so easy. But I think that most of us can remember at least one hats-blown-off, hair-flying, the devil take the hindmost race in our lives for no other reason than the joy of the sun on our faces and a happy horse beating down a trail trying to beat its own shadow. That will not ever go away, nor should it. There has to be a balance. As the rider of a mare with more speed than sense, I'm constantly having to be the controller, the bad guy, and I have to admit that I hate it. I'd rather run too...but someone here has to have a brain. The thing that I see from the discussion is that many of us understand the role of controller and we want other people to understand as well. Even more important is keeping people from pushing tired horses beyond their limits. Ultimately you will never remove all the risk...can't happen...and if it does, then there is no fun anymore. Let's face it, the fun is in facing the risk, recognising it, and finessing our way past safely. We can to it at any gait, at any distance, but that's what it's all about. Maryanne Cairo On Friday, Oct 31, 2003, at 03:45 Africa/Cairo, Joe Long wrote:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|