[RC] impressive records, kim, truman - Ridecamp GuestPlease Reply to: wendy lumbert wendy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== Thanks for the ideas some wrote in, always good to review the accomplishments of some of the great horses. Kim I can't agree more, there are no kudos for riders who are carefully peaking and racing year after year. It's very hard to do, much harder than just going to finish year after year. At least that is my experience. Also, just because those winning horses fall off the charts don't assume they went lame. In our ten years of training and selling endurance horses guess which ones always sold first? And yet about 90 percent of them went to people who never raced them again, just trail rode them. They were basically retired at their peak. Yet what a good life they have! So no regrets here. NOW, a major bone to pick. Truman I think it was you that said: "I think it would have been very difficult for even Rio to have met the challenge facing one race wonders - that could blast one 100 in 7 hours and never be heard from again - time after time." Now since you made the statement I'm putting the burden of proof on you. How about looking up some of the Arab's horses and actually seeing how many have been running sound for race after race? We need to QUIT assuming that horses can't perform at that level and keep on going. It's simply not true. Tom's goal for endurance was to build an endurance horse that could win at level-breaking levels for an entire career.That's the program he outlined for the Arabs and they followed it, and yes they have many horses that compete race after race. Go look them up, I've done it and I'm not doing your homework for you. Hardly anyone trains like that here in the US because it is extremely costly and time-consuming (ever try to ride 7 days a week for a year?). We simply don't have the money given that there are no cash rewards for winning and we don't have the deep pockets that the sheiks do. Not even any emotional rewards - in fact you will most likely be talked bad about forevermore if winning is the goal you strive for. There are folks who ride endurance for the good times and pure pleasure of it and then there are those who derive pleasure from the study of equines and how to improve their performance. And then for some of us those two are intermixed, because we know that the better we understand what makes horses become fit, stay in shape, and recover well, the better we feel about asking them to go 100 miles under saddle with us. What I never understand is why is that so threatening? wendy ps. Until we moved this year I kept a posture of michael jordan on bedroom wall,it's packed so I can't quote it exactly but it went something like this: I succeeded because I failed 10,000 times and still kept on trying. Listed how many games were lost because of him, how many times he missed his free throws, etc. He was no "natural athlete." He studied, he practiced, he endured, he utilized science, and he practiced some more. I can guarantee he didn't sit around for 2 weeks between games resting. And he never played just to play. But for some reason he's a hero, and noone says, that darn michael jordan! He only plays to win! Just a thought. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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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