Very good point. Local ride or WEC, if you "win" (or try to), and break your horse in the process, you lose. Given that I think most people were concerned about the heat and humidity, I think this outing can be counted a success. It takes time to build a program. You don't start out at the top.
Amen. Furthermore, it looks like they will be coming home with healthy horses--which is a HUGE improvement over a couple of past WECs when the "team management" interfered with how the horses had been shod and managed, and caused some serious problems.
While we didn't garner any medals, my impression of this effort was of a much better managed and executed effort than our last couple of outings to WECs.
