Re: LD question

["spencer" <spencer@inu.net>]

I can't AGREE with this more!!  It seems that CTR's are the place that
those show folks take their horses so they can say that their horse can do
something besides go around in circles, etc.  It is not anywhere that a
horse can be judged in any kind of realistic manner about ability to do any
distance.  It is ridculous to discount a real 'pasture' horse for looking
at the human 'judges' hiding in the bushes as the horse goes over an
obstacle.  I was told the horse is supposed to look at the obastacle before
it goes over it.  I said that my hores lives in wooded pasture similar to
'real' life and horses are supposed to be aware of their surroundings--that
is how they have evolved.  Too many ridiculous rules in CTR and if someone
is doing the LD and kills their horse due to appropriate care, then there
are ways to handle that.  Rules like CTRs are NOT NEEDED.
Mary Ann
Zavalla, Tx

----------
From: Stephanie Wind <wind@visionsofthewind.com>
To: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: Re: LD question
Date: Friday, April 03, 1998 1:52 PM


Heidi said:

"When you apply minimum times, you essentially have CTR's, and the more I
see
and the more I hear on this forum, the more I believe that we should be
abandoning LD's in favor of CTR's anyway. "

I would like to comment on this as someone who did many years of NATRC,
started LD and graduated to endurance. I will not EVER go back to CTR
because of the 'obstacles' and human judging!!!!! While appropriate in some
cases, these 'obstacles' often put the riders AND the horses through undue,
unnecessary, and unlikely stressful situations. I also do not believe that
it is important to have all horse tied a certain way (my stallion can UNTIE
the NATRC approved knot) overnight, etc. My biggest beef is the 'forward
progress' rules. Most know what I mean, so I won't recount them all.

Point here being - LD with time frames is NOT the same as CTR.

Thanks for letting me climb on the soapbox... :-)

Stephanie Wind McCray , Vic (the wonder-stud), Rose, and Nora (future
champion)
Tucson  AZ