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[RC] Mariposa Protest filing results in EN - Lynn WhiteDebbie Ekhaml?s entry on the Mariposa ride protest brought up several good points. One thing that she missed, however, was that the rider did not break any of the AERC rules and therefore can not be ?Banned? from further participation. He was simply ignorant of how horses get tired and he probably got overzealous with his spurs. He?s likely one of those people that have seen ?Hildago? way too many times and think it?s a true story. Yes, he probably did deserve to have his ass kicked. But our sport is governed by rules and not subjective emotion or ass kicking. Our culture is based on forgiving mistakes and learning from them. Everyone does really stupid things and I would be willing to bet that just about every endurance rider has or will cross that line of over riding their horse at least once. When a rider stresses his/her horse to exhaustion and requires veterinary treatment, it?s nobody?s business besides the rider, the vet, and ride management. When we start excusing abusive behavior towards other riders at organized events, we begin down the slippery slope of allowing mistreatment of people because someone thinks this or that. I for one would not want to be a part of an organization like that. I think the probability is quite low of ever seeing this rider at an event ever again. It?s likely his vet bill quelled any remaining enthusiasm he might have had for endurance riding. Besides, everybody pretty much knows who this guy is and ride management can and should have a talk with him BEFORE he starts at a ride (He should get the proverbial ?yellow card? that they give aggressive soccer players). Chances are he?ll just load up and go home if he feels like everyone is watching how he treats his horse?but one never knows. Some people are just oblivious. Our sport is not idiot proof, and there will always be participants that slip through the cracks however thin these cracks might be. AERC has minimized equine deaths through rules, but there is no way deaths or near deaths will ever be completely eliminated. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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