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Re: [RC] Awards, the horse's perspective - heidiJust because a horse top tens often doesn't necessarily mean it is being abused. Sometimes a top ten rider may have done a 7 hour 50 but slipped into top ten because of pulls ahead of them or maybe they are in top ten because there just weren't that many riders in the distance they rode. I just finished a 75 recently in top ten. Took 2nd place and last place at the same time. There were only 3 of us and one was pulled at 50 miles. AERC would have to know all the circumstances of the top ten before they just refused recognition just because the horse top tenned more than once in a 30 day period. Nope, not a good idea. Hear, hear. Hubby actually got a 2nd place on a fairly well attended 50 last year, riding quite conservatively. He was on a horse early in its career but with a lot of talent, and was taking it pretty easy. He apologized to me after the ride, and said, "I didn't MEAN to be 2nd--but the horses I was riding with kept getting pulled!" (Including one ahead of him at the finish line...) I Top Tenned last month for the first time in my "second incarnation"--same horse as above, fresh horse on Day 4 of a multiday, had a 44/44 CRI at 10 minutes and the highest soundness score in the entire BC judging (yeah, got high vet score, but was too far back timewise to be in the hunt for BC). The worst "abuse" he had all day was being separated from his buddy at the trailer to go back for BC judging. We rode our own ride, finished in the right time for this point in his career, and that's just where the placings fell. Top Ten is just a number that has no bearing on how the horse is at all. One can't control what other people do with their horses, but even a win is not by definition hard on a horse, provided that it was HIS optimal ride on that day, and not the result of his rider's ego. You can control what YOU do with your horse, and ride HIS optimal ride that day--and if that puts you up front, and other people screwed up and left you all alone up there, so be it and more power to you! Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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