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RE: [RC] Attention Newbies, slowbies, etc. - Lucy Chaplin TrumbullDo AERC still award embroidered patches for mileage? 250, 500, etc? Perhaps it could be related to attaining a high vet score? You get "x" points for every A you get on your vet card at the finish. And extra special points for As in attitude. (or course this backfires if you have a non-demonstrative, comatose-type of horse... <sigh>). I also agree that if you aren't careful, if you have people aiming to complete "x" rides *in a row*, you may get people making bad judgements about pushing their horses into completing when perhaps they ought to be erring on the safe side and pulling. Angie wrote: > Instead of competing against each other I want them to > compete against conditions...trails, limitations, all > the obstacles to getting one started right. The object > is for the rider to concentrate on learning to know > their own horse, not the competition... I guess along those lines this has always been my goal - to try and finish with the horse in as best shape as possible. My pleasure at the end of a ride was always related to how well I thought we'd done as a team - did the horse finish looking great? did I finish looking great? (which in the past was a big problem <g>). And even if things didn't quite go as planned (like Mouse being dead lame at the end of her first 50 <g>), I could still focus on the good at that ride - how cheerful she'd been at the ride, and what promise she'd shown. The trick is almost to not look at the results, as they can give you false misery. "Yay! Horse did great! I felt great! Oh... but look... we
came 140th out of 144... :("(This happened to me... a ride that is won in ~4 hours... it took us over 11 hours to complete. But that was when my knee blew out and we could only walk or canter, and Provo and I had a big fight at ~43 miles about whether or not we would trot. But the satisfaction I had at the end of that ride was enormous. We finished in the face of adversity. Provo and I came to an understanding (for that day, at least <g>). We saw mice and snakes on the trail. Provo looked *great* at the end of the ride. And we beat the 30 or so people who didn't complete that day.) Same with NATRC - I quite enjoyed the couple of rides we did, and was really pleased with how Mouse performed by *her* standards, but somehow, to end the day with the announcement that you came 6th out of 6 kind of put a damper on things <g>. If I did more NATRC rides, I'd leave before the results. ;-P * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Lucy Chaplin Trumbull elsie AT foothill DOT net Repotted english person in Sierra Foothills, California * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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