Re: eavesdropping on show set

[Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> ~~~Endurance @ Olympics~~~
>    >I just figured I'd mention this since it was casually brought up.
>    >I am strongly against adding Endurance to the Olympics! I
>    >don't know if the person who wrote this supports it or not, but
>    >anyway...It really doesn't take much skill on the rider's part,
> 

Totally aside from the notion that endurance riding "doesn't take much
skill", based on this kid's logic, marathon running also shouldn't be an
Olympic sport because runners don't throw in a few pirouettes and or
maybe a handspring midway through the race.

Yes, this is the same attitude I heard from the Baby Buckle Bunnies we
had at Cal Poly, and I took very great pleasure in watching them flail
and slide around at the least bit of uneven ground or whine at the
"dangerous trail" because it wasn't a graded arena.  I also made sure I
pointed out I was not by any means a top endurance rider, just an
average I'm-just-happy-to-complete competitor, and this wasn't even
close to the toughness of an average endurance ride.

If your particular Harry Hall Honey needs another example, you can tell
her I also went out for a pretty good 20-mile ride with my dressage
trainer, Heather Bender, one of the top dressage
competitors/judges/trainers in the country.  Heather kept up just fine,
we had alot of fun and when a bluenose back at the barn made a
disparaging remark about endurance riders, she gave her one of the
roughest tongue-lashings I've ever heard, along the lines that anyone
who puts down endurance as being an unskilled and barbaric sport is
speaking out of ignorance and would be better served to keep their mouth
shut and their eyes open.  It's nice to know that not everyone in the
show set has the same pre-formed opinions that your lil' pumpkin does,
so as she grows up, maybe her mind will too.

Susan G