Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Kathy, My post and my list was addressing exactly that. It was in regard 
to the previous posts concerning the fright and flight response. (ie. 
the lightening) I think that's kinda what everybody has been getting 
down to, training to manage unacceptable bad behavior in scary 
situations, as well as what Kim Feuss said, trying to figure out HOW to 
MANAGE a "race brain" in wiggy horses. It sounds to me that people are 
falling on one side of the fence or another. "It's an Arab and race 
thing, and that's just the way it is" or "With enough money and time, 
like the UAE, then you can indeed train them to be focused and behaved". 
But then there are folks like Kim that seem to be saying; "Whatever it 
is, give me more tools, ideas, and techniques to put in my bag of tricks 
because I just want to improve my chances to do it safer and better".I 
love her attitude the best. I'm obviously straddling both the latter two 
ways of thinking. As for every breed being accepted in endurance Kathy, 
you betcha. We're still here only because most of the endurance riders 
went out of there way to make us feel welcome. But don't for a minute, 
think that I haven't continued to hear that I'm riding the "wrong breed" 
for this sport if I want to be serious about it. Boy there have been 
comments I have heard, about how I'm killing him because he's a Paso 
Fino and he's not meant to do this kind of sport. A lady at my first 
fifty said "oh no honey, he can't do a fifty, just try LD's". At our 
first 100 it was the same thing. And then there were THOUSANDS of 
dollars that were privately won and LOST as we crossed each and every 
vet check at Tevis. There were sooo many people that said we were never 
gonna even make it into the first vet check. No one can tell me that 
some people in this sport can't treat you like you have the IQ of a soap 
dish! Ah, but I just keep believing that ANYTHING is possible......And 
after Tevis,..... I got and framed a beautiful card from Julie Suhr 
congratulating us and telling me about starting out on Peruvian Pasos 
and to keep my head up and be proud. Now that it's finally stopped 
snowing for a few minutes, I'm gonna get off this computer, go saddle up 
the BUFFALO and go for a ride while I keep pondering that "just can't be 
done" theory and excuse.
Melissa Margetts
Telluride Colorado

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=