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[RC] Sad Day - apleg8'nWell Catfish,You apparently did not read all of my post or maybe missed it...it was easy to over look through all the rest of it. This man came to me a year ago from my website which is listed on the first page of Ride Camp. He saw I am a Gaited Endurance rider and he specifically sought me out for as much advice as I could give him about gaited horses in this sport. I spent hours trying to educate this man about AERC, and how our gaited horses are wonderful competitors and further educated him all about what to look for when choosing a gaited horse for serious endurance competition. We spoke of his being an Ironman, Marathon runner, and Triathalete. How he had a good advantage to enter endurance as a very tough equine sport and he would understand the enormous rigors being placed upon the horse as well as himself. I told him as I tell any person that comes to me for advice on this sport and how to best learn about it to join up on Ridecamp and if they have gaited horses which in my case is the norm, I invite them to join up on Gaited Endurance Riders. I let them know that both of these lists will answer all the questions they ever wanted to know about learning and competing in the sport of Endurance and they need to ask any question that comes to mind or look to the archives because chances are it has been discussed many times over. This was the first encounter with this man. Then there was a second, how fast his foxtrotter could fly...23mph according to him at a full on rack gait. Pretty amazing for any horse much less a Foxtrotter. And I told him so. I also warned him that a gaited horse must use more gears than just a rack or the horse would hurt its back in short order. I explained...now remember this is our second conversation...what a ventroflex position is, that a racking only horse cannot do this sport for long. I know...I own a racking horse that now knows how to do a Run Walk, flat foot walk and canter as well as a 17mph rack at a one mile sprint. Oh yes, Catfish....I went the second time into great length again trying to educate this man. The THIRD email from him was within the past two months and less than two months but I really don't remember, but not more than two months ago. Now he is wanting advice as to why his horse is so terribly thin. Well he does rack at 23mph and he did just do all these miles on him in just under a week and gee I am feeding him alfalfa and hay and vegetable oil and blah blah....can you tell me what to do amber?? And again in this third email was his fantasy (oops, sorry forgot to include in the previous ones his dream of kicking arab butt) of how his horse was so darn fast that he just knew he was going to beat all the arabs. This is where I finally put my foot down and told him that he was being way to aggressive, that the Arabs were always going to dominate this sport and to get any other thoughts out of his mind...but the gaited horses can do this sport and do it well.....with proper conditioning, just like our arab countnerparts. Not just a little sunday outing and call it good to go do a LD or fifty. I told him he was overridding his horse and the horse would suffer Metabolic failure, lameness or would not pulse down in time for him to continue if he did not slow down! So then I read all this garbage he put on this list he wasn't aware I am on because I don't post on it any longer. But the moderators emailed me and ask me to help this guy out. It is not an endurance list by any stretch of the imagination so they didn't know what to tell him but they were getting sick of his bragging. I guess they wanted me to come back on and shut him up on the endurance so he would be quiet on the speed of his horse. I dunno. But what I read made me sick. He isn't in my region, he lives in IL. So I guess Catfish and Barb...I can give him all the slack you want. I have already given this egomaniac all the time of mine I intend to. If you feel I have offended his honor...so be it. I get real irritated when people ask me for my advice then turn around and mock me for it. And at the expense of an innocent horse. I have watched two horses in this sport die.....it was two more than I could take. amber rackinfool www.applegaitnendurancehorses.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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