Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Cindy Collins <ccollins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

 There's the LD crowd and there's the FEI crowd and the rest of us are feeling homeless.

 

 

Cindy.....We dinosaurs could start a Rebellion !!!!!!!!!!!!    :)))

 

Now, kidding aside, you are exactly right.  We are being pushed out.  This sport is losing a battle against itself, the members.  Members that want to re-write history and make it something that it was never intended to be.  And to those newbies, and others out there that are not dino's reading this, it really does HURT us to see this happening and not be able to do anything about it.  Give it ten more years, and there will be no 100's.  The Tevis and OD and the other classics may be all that remain of that day.  And then one day, they too may roll over and die.  Why?  Because the sport will have changed so much, that nobody is able to do a 100 miles in a day.  Much less want to try it. And us Dinosaurs will be too old to do it anymore.  Tell me, is that what attracted you new people to the sport???? the Tevis grandeur and glory, the history behind the OD trail, the Virginia City ride, the Big Horn  and the Vermont 100.....do they not hold any honor in your hearts????? Do you not have any higher goals than just a 25 or 50 ????  If you can't see what I am trying to say here, then it may be too late, and I am truly sorry that I will see the end of the best thing a person can do with their horse.  Not a trail ride of 25 miles, but a partnership with that horse, where you both need each other and look out for each other and cross a finish line somewhere in the dark, usually alone with no one there but a timer who happens to be asleep.  But that magic is there and waiting for you. And it is a wonderful thing.  And yes, we do have to take some chances with our horses, we don't know for sure how they are going to look after that first 100.  But if you don't do it.....will you ever know?  Fear would have kept people from ever flying, going to the moon, discovering new lands, or in some, being an endurance rider.   The 100 mile ride is the best test of a real horseperson, a real endurance rider, and a real endurance horse.  Don't look at us old fart dinosaurs as the enemy, we are not, we are really trying to be the best friend to the sport that we can be.  We just don't want it to become extinct.  And right now...the poachers are going to town.

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