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[RC] The Emperor's New Clothes: Another thought - Laura HayesI am not saying I totally disagree with Ms Swagert, or that I wish to see endurance as an Olympic sport, but being soooo adamant about certain topics lays you open to scrutiny. Here are some holes in this post that I thought of in my pre coffee haze this morning. Kat Wrote: 1) For starters, endurance riding is almost totally uninteresting to non-participants<<<< Interestingly, my webcast said that it was being viewed by almost 45,000 people - not bad for a first minor effort. 2) An endurance ride is a very expensive event to stage.<<<< You forget the money thrown into this sport by those who have it. At WEG, it was very apparent who had it and where they wanted it to go - to promote and run endurance. In today's Olympics, money talks, and there is no shortage of it among those who wish to speak. 4) Sometimes, horses die at endurance rides, and that is a PR nightmare that the IOC wouldn't want go get anywhere near<<<< Horses die in all events at some time, my thought is that they would just sweep it under the rug and not make it public. There was a near death in show jumping at WEG from an exhausted horse - it just wasn't public. I am not saying this is right, but I am guess that it is not a huge concern of the IOC. because he had never ridden the horse before. It was bred, raised, conditioned, trained, owned, handled, and cared for by somebody other than the person who got the medal.<<<<<< Olympic caliber horses in other disciplines are rarely bred, raised, trained and handled by the eventual rider. I can't imagine the IOC gives a hoot about this either. My thoughts are: While I do not care one way or another about endurance becoming an Olympic sport (other than then I won't have to explain it so much to those who have never heard of it ;-)) I don't believe it will impact the way we ride our local rides anymore than the FEI selection process does now - certain rides for those few who are seeking that venue. I had aspirations in this vein many years ago, but I don't like the direction it is going - I was in Spain- but I felt there were some inaccuracies in the article I am quoting. Also my sense of fair play doesn't like to see anyone called names... The bottom line in my mind is MONEY. The Arabs have it and they are willing to spend it to get what they want - I won't be surprised if it works. Laura Hayes =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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