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[RC] Sportsmanship at Caja Ride - Debbie Ekhaml

Hi Ridecampers,

   There are many reasons we do endurance, but for
me, one of the biggies is the awesome people that do
our sport.  I just returned from the Caja Del Rio ride
and had the pleasure of riding with 3 wonderful people
for a majority of the ride.  One of them was Ray
Sansom, last years War Mare AND Mileage champ, on his
mare Honey.  After a bit of time off, he had a couple
setbacks at the first rides he went to.  After the 40
mile check, we all set off toward the finish.  As we
approached the first turn, I looked back to discover
he and one of the other women were not there. Turned
out, she was tired, and her horse, although ok, was
being a bit sluggish.  Honey was in great shape, and I
know he wanted to go, but chose to stay back and offer
encouragement and company to his fellow rider.  I was
really impressed by this selfless act as he could have
easily joined myself and the other rider.  He also
carried a stash of carrots, and I would periodically
see Honey whip her head back and grab one as he
offered it as we went down the trail.  He also
willingly shared feed at the vet checks, even though I
had plenty.  This is the kind of person endurance is
all about folks!  Thanks for making my ride Ray,
Marilyn and Kim!
   On another note re: ride refunds not coming- I
don't know the ride manager that well. However I do
know, via her helpers, she just returned from Tevis,
works full time, managing/preparing for the Caja ride,
has been working on a grant for the Caja Trails area,
and has singlehandidly mapped the entire area and
produced a forest service quality map for anyone who
cares to ride the area and is unfamiliar with it. 
This was a BENEFIT ride, to raise money for a
trailhead facility.  I am sure there is another side
to this story and I am a little perplexed as to why
someone from the PS region is publicly putting a post
on Ridecamp about refunds that she is not involved
with.  Unless Lynn entered and was personally not
issued a refund, maybe the people involved should have
the guts to do their own posting.  I am sure there was
some kind of oversight and it will be corrected.  I
did not care for the tone of the posting ie: that the
ride manager "took" their money and won't give it
back.  There is a thing called a telephone.  Maybe
that should have been tried before a posting of that
nature.  We should all be so lucky as to have ride
managers that are willing to dedicate themselves to
the undertaking this one has.  Lighten up!  I would
want my money back too, but is it the end of the world
if the money ends up going to a nice facility that
these riders will probably use in the future?  This
was the 4th year for this ride; I did the first year
and it has really improved.  I hope the people
involved will publicly apologize when they get their
checks back.  Flame on, I stand by everything I said. 
     Debbie


      
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