Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 09:55:43 -0600 (MDT) <heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> > What about the ultra-marathons held at Tevis and Vermont? Are the 
> horses
> > & runners anywhere near each other at the end of *really* long 
> distance?
> > I've seen video of a few of those races and lots of the runners 
> would
> > never get out of a vet check as "fit to continue".  Also, to 
> *really*
> > make if an equal comparison you'd also have to make the runner 
> carry an
> > equal percentage of his body weight that the horse is carrying.
> I've already e-mailed Jim privately, but the thing that comes to 
> mind to
> me in most of these comparisons is that one is comparing a human at 
> the
> absolute pinnacle of capability to a horse that may be "pretty good" 
> but
> is not of comparative caliber in the equine world.
>
> The horse population at large could out-do the human population at 
> large
> any day of the week, and I'd wager on the horse if one pitted the 
> handful
> of really top-notch horses against the handful of really top-notch 
> humans.
>
> This is already an apples-to-oranges comparison, but at least let's
> compare apples and oranges that are both ripe enough to be 
> worthwhile.
>
> Heidi

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely
in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming --WOW-- what
a ride !! "

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You don't have to be a 100-mile rider or a multi-day rider to be an
endurance rider, but if you want to experience the finest challenges our
sport has to offer, you need to do both of those.
~ Joe Long

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