Re: RC: Fwd: LD VS. ENDURANCE

[Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>]

Hi Keri - I don't think competitive riding is a cure-all for the need
for endurance riding education.  These are two different sports.  Just
because horses & trails are involved doesn't mean they're
interchangeable enough to *require* a person do CTR before endurance.

Keep in mind that one won't necessarily learn how to pass another horse
politely or how to rate a horse at speed by doing CTR (at least when
staggered starts & mandatory pacing are involved - when and why would
anyone be passing at a trot unless they're late, and where is the
education for that coming from?).  I've seen horses overridden *at*
NATRC events, and for one horrible 3 days in Auburn years ago, a bunch
of us tried to save the life of a horse that was overridden on a last
minute Tevis training ride - the rider and horse were an experienced
NATRC team, but that didn't keep the rider from making fatal mistakes.
You wrote "Ride management expects you to know how to take care of
yourself and horse" with reference to endurance, but CTR is not "made
for teaching" - it's made for being judged.  You still have to come to a
ride having learned how to take care of yourself and your horse before
you got there - not at the ride! - the difference is that there are
judges at the ride seeing if you have figured out the rules & can follow
them and they tell you about it.  There are judges at endurance rides,
of course.  They're just different - sometimes they're called rope burn
or lameness or cut-off times or a pulse that won't drop, sometimes
they're called sorry experience.  You're expected to not need a judge to
point out your mistakes.  You are expected to learn from them
nevertheless.

No one prevents anyone who wants to do endurance from getting an
education.  Most of the basic skills should and can be learned from a
good riding instructor, a good riding club, a 4-H club, etc.  There's
quite a few endurance (& distance riding books) available now.  Many,
many experienced endurance riders have begun mentoring.  For that
matter, anyone can go to a race and work for management and learn a
tremendous amount.  If people need to get an education before doing
endurance, it's out there for the getting.  All they have to do is *take
personal responsibility* for deciding to get that education.  Endurance
is like life.  You're free to decide to make mistakes. If more and more
rules and requirements are added to endurance, no one gets to make the
*decision* to learn, and we wind up with a bastard version of something
too much like CTR to be called endurance any more.  Lif


--
                                     ____________
Lif & Paul Strand   STRAND ENTERPRISES   http://www.fasterhorses.com
           Arabian Horses for Distance Riding
         Internet Research * WebArt * Fine Art
    Nutrition and alternatives for self-reliant people
                     Quemado, NM  USA



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