Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

While I will agree that not being informed at the ride meeting that
there would be no water at the vet check (so people should arrange for
their own) would come under the heading of "basic and necessary
information," and even I would be a bit peeved if it had happened to me.

However, in my multitude of years of experience of riding crewless
myself (or having my crew not show up at the appointed time :)), all of
the other misfortunes encountered by the crewless rider at this ride
(and even the lack of water at the vet check one for that matter) could
have (unless endurance rides and endurance riders in Wisconsin are
different from any other ride I have been to) been solved if this rider
had known how to get help.

Personally, in my experience, the best way to get help is to simply ask
for it (I am told by old timers that this is the Smokey Killen Method of
riding endurance :) although from what I hear, he took it to the
extreme).

The best way to get help is NOT to look helpless and hope that people
who, justifiably, are busy doing other things will notice and take pity
on you.

I have begged water and hay for my horse when I got to the vet check
long before my crew on the last day of the Outlaw Trail; I have begged a
bridle and a girth for a week, when I showed up at the June XP without
these things because I had loaned out my trailer and those things has
been "cleaned out" by the person I loaned it to; I have begged rides for
my crew; I have asked around for somebody going to the vet check to take
my stuff there for me; I have asked around for riding companions who are
planning to go the same speed.  And I have never been denied any of
these things from people who are able to provide it (and some of them
have had to go out of their way to do so).

Oh yeah, and I (or my crew, usually my Dad), have been asked for and
provided the same things.

What I haven't done, and have no particular intention of doing (other
than along the trail itself if I see somebody stopped, off their horse,
walking, or something like that), is look around for people who look
like they might need help but don't know how to ask for it.  I MIGHT
(the emphasis here is "might") kinda keep an eye out for somebody who
had come up to me and introduced themselves as a novice, but probably
only if they had included with that introduction, "So any
tips/pointers/help you could give me would be appreciated."

More likely I would just say, "If there is anything I can help you with,
let me know."  And then would figure that if they needed help that they
would ask for it.

Personally, I am of the opinion that one of the most important abilities
that an endurance rider (or anybody else who goes out in the middle of
nowhere, alone) needs to foster is the ability to ask for help....from
anybody who looks capable of providing it.  So yeah, back in 2001 while
I was riding across Kansas at the XP, I stopped in the front yards of
total strangers (who just happened to live along the course) and asked
for water for my horse.  And not one of those people ever said "no"
either; in fact, they usually also disappeared inside the house and came
out with carrots and/or the kids :).

Endurance riding is about a combination of self-reliance as well as the
ability to understand that it can't be done alone and so to ask for
and/or provide help as needed (and, BTW, the Duck's cross country XP
rides is a great place to learn/experience this).

kat
Orange County, Calif.



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