Re: [RC] The Meaning of Endurance Riding - Maryanne Gabbani
I have to second Pauline for the situation in Egypt. The endurance folk here went at it totally assbackwards from my point of view. There never was a fun aspect or an amateur aspect to the sport from day two in April 2000 with the help of the UAE. There was one 20 km ride here in Mar 2000 that was a hell of a lot of fun, but we all figured out which way the wind was blowing by the third race in May that year and all of the people who ride because they really love their horses dropped out.? Now the FEI rides are drawing smaller and smaller crowds among the guys from the hack stables in Nazlit Semman (aka, Horse Hell) because the funding from the UAE is either getting smaller or the local federation is passing along a lot less for prize money...who knows which, but the money is talking and people are voting with their feet.?
On an amateur level, there is one group that has monthly rides but they have been using the same track in the desert for three months now and never get beyond LD length of 40 km or 25 miles.? This is kind of understandable since they only ride in the desert nearby (people here don't have trailers to move horses around) and our desert isn't like the US deserts. You all have scenery, animals and vegetation where we have rocks and sand.? If you only ride in the desert for conditioning and compete in the same place and usually on the same trail....well, there is only so much time that you are willing to spend riding across sand and rocks.
We have the same problem of a lack of wilderness in that the wilderness we have is so completely unsympathetic to horses and people that it is unusable. If there is any water around, the army have taken the space over and they are really not horse-friendly.
I'm trying to introduce the basic idea of a 50 mile ride this fall and I have no idea at all of how many people will be interested in trying it. By setting the ride trail among country farms, I am slowing the pace down considerably because horses simply can't go galloping willy nilly along the farm trails. There are over 50 thousand people living in the area where I ride (and this is considered rural !!??) and my riders will be dodging livestock, farm equipment, kids, dogs, and poultry. A lot of people really can't handle the human relations aspect of it at all. The Egyptian farmers are very poor, very over-worked, and very confused by people who have the time to play with horses. My admiration is for the high mileage horses and riders, but I'm? a vast minority here (though I am working on losing the weight). I'm hoping that I can seduce enough people out to have some fun in the country with their horses just for the fun of it. Now once they find out what I'm giving as first prize, they may never come back, but it's worth a try. And then again, with the rate at which people are building in my area, there is the real question of where we can continue to ride any distance in another five years.
Well Steph I can say that from my experience in France & surrounding countries the emphasis is definitely shifting towards winning rather than completing
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Personally I much admire the mileage/career concept which exists in the US and have tried to introduce this here on a small scale... not many riders are interested!
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Inevitably with money entering the sport and people starting to 'professionalise' and trying to make a living out of it - speeds are up, average career?lengths of horses are down
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Horses are started younger, have less time to prove themselves, the pool of potential endurance horses is growing as breeders produce more stock.. riding costs are rising all the time ( think extra administrative stuff, passports, chips, registration, ...) so horses have to start earning their keep earlier.. etc.
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More emphasis is placed on rider fame rather than horse fame - read some ride reports from say UAE and you'll know who won but not whom he/she (well, rarely she) was riding!
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There will always be an 'amateur' (in the proper sense) group riding for fun while making their horse last but undeniably this group is getting smaller here.
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The 'to finish is to win' motto remains valid ... but?not?for all. ?
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UAE & even parts of Europe ofcourse don't help from a geological aspect - no 'true' wilderness to conquer anymore at?low speeds... what else can you do in the desert but RACE?
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so to answer your question - I'm afraid more & more riders will compete more & complete less
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brgds
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Pauline
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ps I believe there is a prize draw for spectators of the President's cup - make sure you enter ; might win 3500$!!! Now there's a way of increasing spectators that we simply cannot compete with...
