Accidents

[Liz Newfield <lizfield@jeffnet.org>]

I have been lurking in the background reading people's philosophies of
safety on rides in a variety of settings this summer.  I am basically very
conservative -- some people would probably say too much so.

I believe that we are all responsible for assessing situations and
determining what behavior is save and what is dangerous and what is safe
and acting accordingly.  We all know that equine activities are potentially
dangerous both for particpants and to some extent for spectators.  I
believe that each person needs to accept responsibility for his or her own
safety and to the extent possible for the safety of specatators.  I have
been disappointed to hear people who participate in a sport where the motto
is "To finnish is to win" put winning over watching out for the next guy.
I have seen wonderful cooperation and sportsmanlike behavior on rides --
people sacrificing position to help others and that is part of what
attracts me to endurance riding.  I hope that we don't lose that sense of
community to the drive to win.


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