In a message dated 12/11/2003 7:49:47 PM Pacific Standard Time, howard9732@xxxxxxx writes:
You know what? If any of that is true, you should be the ones jumping at the chance to teach others at rides who don't know as much as you do. But, I guess you're just too damn busy earning those miles and points and don't have time for all that. Attitudes like yours, Lauren, will ensure nothing will ever change and 11 deaths per year will remain the norm. Complacency, like speed, will continue to kill.
Helllloooooooooooooo ooooooout therrrrrrrrreeeeee........Would the real Howard please step forward?? LOOK AT YOUR OWN RIDE RECORD before you start preaching to the choir!!!!!! Your sanctimonious, self-serving piousness is disgusting in light of how you actually RIDE YOUR OWN HORSES!!!! Sit down and SHUT UP!!! Until you can (as you would say yourself) walk the walk, then don't talk the talk! It just doesn't work and it quite frankly pisses most people off who actually have put in the miles and who actually ARE trying to do what's right for their own horses and other people's horses. Howard, quite frankly, you just don't have anything behind you to back up your big mouth. WE as endurance ridrers, for the most part, ADORE our horses and put their needs first, we don't need to hear from a newbie who almost killed a couple of horses how we should do it, it just doesn't sit well. If you could format your posts more along the lines of "I know I don't know anything but...here's what I think" maybe we would all at least read them attentively....however, Howard as the savior of all horses is a bit hard to swallow.
Now, on the other hand, MMS proposals are pretty cool and come from somebody who HAS the miles and the experience to "preach" to the rest of us. They are WORTH looking at (nevermind if Howard supports them you guys, they make sense). I totally support the concept of not letting one more horse die in this sport.....is that realistic? No! But should one more horse die from being "overridden"? Absolutely not and they do need our protection, without a doubt. So, let's get back to the subject at hand (not Howard bashing, no matter how FUN that is) but some of the really good horse protection proposals that have been brought forward.
