New Motto? What is winning?

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

k s swigart katswig@earthlink.net
Beth Glace Said of the AERC Motto "To Finish is to Win":

>...but I think Tom raises a good, and controversial point here:
>if we call endurance a sport then the prime objective is trying
>to do it better than the next person."

Indeed, the AERC's motto of "to finish is to win" does allow
competetion between people ("I can do it better than the next
person") as well as competition against the trail

Here's how it works...the people who finish the most ... are
"doing it better than the next person" (i.e. those that don't
finish as much). This is, I believe, why the AERC has mileage
champsionships, the rider mileage program, and the 1000 mile
horse program.

And quite frankly, I find much more to revere in a horse and
rider who can manage a whole season or career of seasons than
there is to revere in one or two "first to finish" in a few
races per season...or per career.

Finishing IS what enduring is about, if enduring is about going,
and going, and going, and going, and going again.

So...the horses/riders that are "better" than others at the
"sport" of endurance are those that finish more often...not
those that finish faster.

Now...if you can finish often and fast...then that is even more
impressive...which is why the AERC has points competitions

>I find it slightly surprising that when anyone says, "well that >motto doesn't fit my idea of winning"  that they are
>accused of not understanding or respecting the "sport".

Indeed, I do accuse you of not understanding the "sport" (the
sport whose motto is "to finish is to win").  The "sport" of
winning one particular (no matter how long) race is not the same
sport as finishing over and over and over again.

This leads to all kinds of misunderstandings when a bunch of
long distance riding sports are all lumped under the heading of
"endurance" (witness the bickering that goes on here between
riders of different distances).

But the sport of preparing for and finishing first in one race
is NOT the same sport as preparing for and completing (and
thereby winning) the whole season any more than cutting and
reining are the same sport even though they are done by similar
people, with similar horses, with similar backgrounds, and
sometimes at the same venue.

Personally, _I_ prefer the sport of endurance riding as defined
by the motto "to finish is to win" mostly because I think it is
a sport that is much easier on the horses.  Oddly enough, it
makes it so that no one single event matters.  It encourages and
rewards people for stopping or slowing down when their horses
are "marginal" (e.g. there is no reason for going on in today's
ride if it means I am risking losing the use of the horse for
the rest of the season--so I quit at the early signs of trouble
with the understanding that there is always tomorrow...and next
week...and next month, rather than hoping to nurse my horse
through the race and that I can stave off any problems until
after the race that matters.)  And to win, I don't have to
compete agaist people who ARE willing to spend the horse in
pursuit of today's "win" (those people will fail at the sport
that counts your finishes not your finishing first).

I am not saying that gearing up for a single event is not an
interesting sport that doesn't take skill on the part of the
rider and talent on the part of the horse...just that it is a
different sport from the one of keeping a horse going all season.

The sport of keeping a horse going for the whole season...or for
its whole lifetime has the motto "to finish is to win."  And
believe it or not, it is an extremely challenging sport that
takes a whole lot of skill on the part of the rider and a whole
lot of talent on the part of the horse...and some of those
skills and talents are the same ones as those needed to succeed
at the "finising first is winning" sport.

But make no mistake...just because they require similar skills,
they aren't the same sport, because "winning" is measured
completely differently (just as it is in hunters and jumpers).

So,...if you change the motto....you are now talking about a
different sport--not better, not worse, just different.

Why can't we just have two different sports (or three if you
want to include the LD thing :))...and...to avoid
confusion...call them different things (just as they do in
hunters and jumpers, or cuting and reining, or cutting and team
penning)?

kat
Orange County, Calif.

p.s.  Lest you think that I am making a comment about the
suitability of fast acting carbohydrates as being suitable feed
for endurance horses as defined by "to finish is to win," I am
not.  In my experimentation, I have used carbo supplementation
on both "tortises and hares" (to use Sarah Ralston's
terminology) and, in fact, I have found it to be most beneficial
to the tortises.  When I get around to it...I may actually take
the time to report on my myriad of trials with this stuff
(purely field trials, no clinical trials)...but I may not
bother.  Tom has gotten reports from me (although not recently
since I have been too damn busy)...so anybody interested MAY be
able to get them from him; although they may not, and they
probably wouldn't be the same as coming from me...because he
would add his own editorial slant :).


Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp
Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-