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Re: [RC] [RC] What constitutes a successful ride - Dawn CarrieWow...big question. I'll give it a shot, both as a RM and as a rider.
As a RM, I consider it a successful ride if we have enough riders to break even, there are no major snafus (or at least we're able to deal with them without me having a heart attack LOL), riders have a good time, we get good comments back, and riders (and vets and volunteers) are willing to come back next year. Personally, I like it when lots of people come to our ride, because that makes me feel that they trust us to do a good job, which we try very hard to do. The no horses treated - while I would definitely consider that important, one cannot predict the level of stupidity riders will bring to the ride, and I would not judge my ride a failure simply because a rider rode the hair off their horse on a hot day. Of course, if that rider were a first-timer, I would definitely look to see if I dropped the ball somewhere, and how I could do better next year in terms of providing info for new riders, mentors, etc. But if it's an experienced rider...there's only so much the vets can do to help the horses. We can try to make our rides foolproof, but I guarantee ya, a better fool will show up next year! As a rider, I consider it a successful ride for myself simply if I complete and my horse looks and feels good after the ride and the next day. I'm pretty easy to please. :) As icing on the cake, I like a technical trail with lots of variety in terrain, and prefer fewer longer loops to more, but shorter, loops. But that's not really "success" - that's more personal preference. As an aside, I've had several rides that I actually considered pretty successful where I *didn't* complete...these were rides that were a horse's first 50, and the horses did very well up until they were pulled for something not related to lack of conditioning (one lost a shoe on a very rocky ride, another slipped and fell in some slick ruts and badly bruised his hip). Both showed me that they had what it took to complete a 50, it was just that Murphy wasn't on their side those days. Dawn Carrie (East Texas) RM, Hog Scramble I & II On 8/23/06, GoldenCMK@xxxxxxx <GoldenCMK@xxxxxxx> wrote:
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