All in all it is
a good honest sport. And a good honest bunch of people. The Vets can
pretty much spot a drugged horse, and if any Vet was playing favorites it
wouldn't take long for the riders to start screaming at the RM's. So
anything like that wouldn't last long. As for cutting trail, a
person would have to really know the area to do it, and then all the other
riders pretty much know who is in front of them and behind them. We all
pretty much know where we are in line. And if a person catches up in a really
unusually fast time, or gets in front of someone that knows they didn't pass
them..... Well it would be really hard to cut very much trail and not have
someone figure it out. If a person was trying it on any kind of
regular basis, they'd get caught, and pretty soon nobody would be speaking to
them or inviting them to supper in camp. Good old fashioned shunning.
Usually if someone does cut trail it is completely accidental and they are
horrified to learn that they did it, often times riding many extra miles to rite
the situation, or pulling out of the ride. Endurance riders on the
whole are a pretty good self policing bunch, and they are just not the cheating
kind of people. The basic nature that is required to even want to do
this sport is not predisposed to poor sportsmanship. Their may be loud
and heated "discussions", but not cheating. I am sure you will find
Endurance ALLOT different than the show ring.
