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RE: [RC] Poor Showing at WEC - heidi

It's not our riders or horses in the US - it's our program or should I 

say lack of one.


Truman, in past years there was some validity in this statement--or
should I say that the "program" that was put together in the past was a
poor one that did not take into account the intelligence of our riders
and the qualities of our horses.  Many of the problems in the past
couple of WECs have actually been induced by an overzealous approach in
which management changed things that were working for various horses and
riders, and made a complete hash of it.  Some of the wrecks our squad
had in the past were due to some serious shoeing changes, major changes
in e-lyte protocols, etc.

I don't see ANY evidence of that this year.  In fact, as others have
stated, it was very evident throughout the entire race that the USA did
well to ride to their horses' capabilities, rode to plan, and had a
major improvement in the outcome--no metabolic problems, and only one
pull due to trail issues.  What happened to Jan and Meg was an
unfortunate accident--one in which the injury to the horses was not
evident later, but then we've all seen that same sort of thing happen
here, too, where somebody takes a fall and the horse seems fine until he
has traveled several more miles.  What happened to Cheryl Dell was bad
luck pure and simple--she withdrew with a completel healthy horse.

I think Jeremy Olson hit the nail on the head--you saw the positive
beginnings of a much better USA program in this year's WEC, and had it
not been for pure bad luck, you probably would have seen five of the six
finish, and even if they did it out of medal range, it would not have
been by much.  I see nothing here but encouragement for the future, and
I hope that USEF is wise enough to keep the same management team in
place for awhile in hopes of capitalizing on some of the obvious gains
that were made this year.

Well done, squad!

Heidi


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