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[RC] LD: It's Getting Ugly in Here - Ridecamp GuestPlease Reply to: Howard Bramhall howard9732@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== As I tried to say in one of my earlier posts, the one where even Dr. Weary said he agreed with me (I bet he felt nauseas when he wrote that one), all LD/endurance awards, each and every one of them, are for the human and the human alone. The horse does not care at all if he gets BC or 1st Place or even the Turtle award. You want to reward your horse for what he's done? Bake him an apple pie or a carrot cake and, when he's done eating it all, wet sponge his dirty butt area that needs cleaning. This last act will help keep your ego in check. Your horse just wants to eat, poop, feel clean (especially back there) and be merry with the other horses. Any endurance award you've received is for your ego and yours alone. Even a biothane bridle is really for you, not your horse. He actually prefers not to wear anything. Unlike most humans, all horses are nudists. Say what you want about LD riders but I do know there are quite a few of them who do that distance for the health of their horse and that reason alone. Less distance, less chance of getting a horse into trouble. It's a mantra for quite a few LD riders and I don't think anyone should think less of them for not being the risk takers that true endurance requires one to be, no matter what speed you travel, no matter what prior training you do with your horse. The more miles you do on a horse in one given day, the more chance of something going wrong. This is why we hold 100 milers to such a high level of respect; they are taking the greatest risk in our sport with their horse. To think less of those who choose not to take such a risk is plain wrong. I, personally, don't think we reward the real LD rider enough. The rider who does this distance to protect their horse. The rider who will not be persuaded, by others, to step up and do true endurance just because of labels, definitions, and awards. There's a reason why they do what they do and once you see it, you gotta love them for it. For me, the LD riders who thinks this way are the best horse people I know. They never take their horse close to that endurance edge and God Bless them for thinking that way. Racers are in every distance, btw, not only the LD. We have racers and we have runners in our sport and the horse is in jeopardy with both of those types of riders, no matter what the distance. Some of ya'll really need to read the Duck's creed on what is an endurance racer and what is an endurance rider. When I do get back into this sport, it will be the Duck's way or I just won't show up at all. For me, the true endurance rider is the one who realizes that he is risking his horse by doing any distance and this is on his mind each and every mile his horse achieves, no matter what the final number turns out to be. The true endurance rider will stop when they know their horse has traveled too far, even if this involves not completing the ride. It really shouldn't be about the miles, it should be about the journey with the final destination being a fit and well horse. Anything else, awards, total miles, badges of honor, are secondary. If the horse is not there at the end of the day, for you to hug and thank for taking you wherever you wanted to go, the awards mean nothing. cya, Howard (be proud of any award you've earned but be more proud of the horse who made darn sure you got it) ------------------ Diane, Nope, you're the one who has it all wrong! 'Nuff said! Jeanne West Region AERC 4887 http://home.comcast.net/~endurancemorgan/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Diane Trefethen To: ridecamp Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 8:37 PM Subject: Re: [RC] LD BC Jeanne, give it a rest and stop yelling at me, especially since you're mostly wrong. Jeanne Slominski wrote: Jeez, Diane, if AERC BC forms are NOT used, it isn't a LD BC award. What is so hard to understand about that? If you take the time to look at the year book or EN, you will see in the ride results that the vast majority of rides in the West or Pacific South don't show any thing for LD BC. That means it wasn't awarded!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it also shows who the head vet was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then later: It's NOT a BC award - could be a Horse Excellence award , a horsemanship award, whatever, but it's NOT a BC award! 1) The letters "BC" stand for "Best Condition". When the Head Vet says your horse has completed a ride in better shape than the other horses and the RM awards you a prize for that achievement, it IS a Best Condition Award. If the Head Vet didn't use the AERC Best Condition form, the award is still a Best Condition Award. If the AERC doesn't give you points for it, it is still a Best Condition Award. By your reasoning, and using your words, the Haggin Cup at Tevis, "is NOT a BC award - could be a Horse Excellence award , a horsemanship award, whatever, but it's NOT a BC award!" Anyone associated with Tevis care to jump in here? This is not a private conversation. :) 2) Not having awarded a Best Condition at a ride is only one of the reasons that EN might fail to list a Best Condition. The Best Condition Award may have been calculated not using the AERC Best Condition form or the Ride Manager may have inadvertently failed to report the award to AERC on the original forms, or a secretary at AERC may have omitted the Best Condition listing when sending the ride results out to the printer. The fact that no Best Condition is listed does not always mean that no Best Condition was awarded. Take the Sand Hills Stampede I 30 Miles ride (SE Region) last April. There is no Best Condition listed for that ride, despite there having been 46 finishers. If I were like you, I might say, "Jeez, Jeanne, here you have this vet Dr Schmitt who even wrote to us here at Ridecamp to support giving the LD BC to a Top Ten horse, and Jeez, Jeanne, he didn't even award one at the Sand Hills Stampede I 30 Miles ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" [See, I know how to yell too :) ] But were I to do that, I would be dead wrong because Dr Schmitt DID award a BC at that ride. It went to Staccnepov ridden by JoAnn Baker. So you see, Jeanne, when you say that if EN doesn't list anything for Best Condition, "That means it wasn't awarded!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it also shows who the head vet was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", you are only half right. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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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