Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

As I recall, the shorter rides were initiated to give newcomers a venue for 
introducing themselves and horses to the sport. Then it became an issue when 
riders began accusing 50-milers and others of "treating them like second 
class citizens."  Now if that is not a hurtful statement, I don't know what 
is.  It has huge meaning.  Then LD riders began demanding awards and equal 
recognition.  Gradually, the whole issue was blown out of proportion.

There is nothing wrong with the shorter ride, but it should be used for its 
original intention, not a stand-alone division.  The idea is to move up to 
longer distances, not stay in LD forever.

I don't much care for the term Limited Distance, but I think that was all we 
could think of at the time.  Perhaps it's time to rename it something more 
appealing.  Introductory Ride is certainly descriptive.  Perhaps Novice 
Ride....
As a thought, what about limiting newcomers to a certain number of the 
introductory rides?  Say 5 per horse, and then the rider is expected to move 
up to longer distances on that horse.  I would be perfectly happy to see all 
awards for introductory rides abolished, except perhaps for patches.  We've 
made a whole new awards category for a distance that should have been a 
trial distance for moving up.

My first experience was a challenging 50-miler for which both I and my horse 
were totally unprepared.  I would have welcomed a shorter ride to practice 
on.  But I did find that an unconditioned horse can do 25 miles, so that 
does not challenge anyone to work at conditioning a horse for greater feats.

I don't really care what the solution is, if people would just stop this 
constant bickering over something that is so trivial and just get on with 
riding.  Remember, if nothing else, our by-laws state "endurance is 50 miles 
or greater."  You can't dispute that.

I've probably said too much already.....

Barbara

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Diane Trefethen" <tref@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 9:04 PM
Subject: Re: [RC] call it Endurance? Long, probably TOO long


> I believe that the main problem is that LD was formalized in a way that 
> angered a lot of Endurance riders.  A relatively small number of people, 
> for whatever reasons, lead the charge to obtain greater recognition for 
> the limited distance rider by getting on the BOD and then exerting 
> sufficient influence to obtain a limited distance program that mirrors 
> that of the longer rides.



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