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Re: [RC] another proposal - rides2farMaybe we should look at it from the inside-out, rather than the outside-in. Why do we ride each ride? So many different reasons. I *ride* because I was born with a love for horses and love to be on them. I *compete* because I like to test myself and my horse against others with a variety of different goals that often change in mind. That's why my competition *really* doesn't know whether they "beat" me or not....I may have had a different goal that day (like for my horse to have a higher vet score) so maybe I really beat them. :-) What might motivate us to push our horses beyond their ability on a given day? I can tell you what got me to once. By the way, my horse looked good afterwards, recovered *well* within 15 min. but his CRI was up TWELVE beats at 15 min. Was level at the hour though. Now...what made me do something that stupid? There were 3 of us who kept ending up together in the lead. Two of us because our horses easily out recovered everyone else. The third person because he pushed his horse *hard* while on the trail to catch us. The two of us who were well within our horse's abilities at the time and would have been fine with either of us winning...but the thought of letting that third person get the win and be rewarded for over riding was too much...so when he took off with a full mile to go the other fast recovery horse's rider called his bluff and took off with him. Being stupid and not realizing I had a sure thing BC if I'd just trotted in I took off too. Now...would a 15 min. cut off have disqualified me? Not that I recall. Seems like he dropped like a rock like usual. Probably would have DQ'd the over-rider (O.K. I was an over-rider too but the I'm talking about the one that was over riding all along)...but if we hadn't raced him in when he first took off he probably would have made the 15 min cut off. It would have been nice if poor recoveries had gotten him earlier in the day. This would have been the perfect time for that to be in effect...but though our horses were recovering in 3 to 5 min. and his was taking quite a bit longer I can't imagine that he ever went over 10 or he couldn't have caught us. As far as year end points. I doubt it ever crossed any of our minds. The tired horse was in a different weight division. What would help us decide to pull, or slow down, if our horse was indicating> that the day's exertion was more than it could handle. In my case...knowledge. I can only think of one time I've gone on when he was metabolically questionable. When I first started doing 100's Kaboot would get a little ahead of his stomach at 75 or 80 miles. He wasn't eating good at a vet check and it was almost dark. The trail wasn't marked worth a darn and we'd hurried some to get as far as possible before dark. I didn't know it at the time but the alfalfa I had was moldy and he just acted uninterested. Then someone offered him apples, he ate several, I was *just* about ready to pull but saw the last two horses leaving and jumped on and left with them. The second we hit the trail he started grabbing grass and finished with the high vet score. I took a gamble and it worked out. Maybe he could have crashed out there. If I can *know* more I won't take careless chances...but there's sometimes a fine line between "working your way through a problem" and "going on when you should have stopped". If I knew which was which I'd certainly try to take the right route. Because it usually comes down to the individual rider's decision, not always the vet's. Absolutely. I've had several vets look at me like I was weird when I wanted to pull. I'll admit, there's been other times when I've thought something was OK and they questioned whether it was..I listened to their point of view but again since it was borderline had to make my own decision. If we were to start from scratch, and devise an award system that gives us incentive to 'ride within the horse's ability on any given day' - what might that be? I think the longer term the awards, the more broken down into "levels" the better. If you set the award *too* long term (5000 miles for instance) the goal is too high and too distant to affect early riding in a big way...but if the goal is attainable with a horse with no foundation and a bit of luck and recklessness you will encourage the wrong behavior. A year is a reasonably long time to keep up a winning (or top 5) streak. I wonder how many horses take an early lead, go lame and them slowly slide off the radar? If we demphasize any given day and emphasize a career and reward the proper steps as they're reached there should be goals for every rider that gradually increase in prestige over time. Mileage is good...and is a major motivator for me, but I like to recognize the superior athletes that can do the distance with style too. Angie ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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