Re: RC: Learning Lessons (was Death in Ridecamp and Syria)

[Howard4567@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/10/00 10:40:09 PM !!!First Boot!!!, katswig@earthlink.net
writes:

<< The lessons that Howard claims to have learned (in his 
 original postings) are “Don’t do endurance at all” and “There is a 
 God.”  Upon reflection, he may have changed his mind about one or both 
 of these things.  Jerry Fruth thought the lesson Howard ought to have 
 learned is to not try to do endurance on a non-arab, many people 
 thought Howard should have learned not to go so fast, or not to 
 race…Angie :), or not to go so fast on an underprepared horse…
 
 To be honest with you, there wasn’t any real solid information provided 
 in Howard’s account of his experiences with Dance Line, to make any 
 reasonable determination as to why the horse experienced such severe 
 metabolic distress (as in what actually caused his gut to block).  I 
 know of a horse that experienced reflux colic when standing in his 
 stall, with absolutely no changed in his regular management routine 
 which included regular feeding of an oat alfalfa mixed forage, regular 
 turn outs, and light riding by a pre-teenage girl.  One can hardly say 
 that that horse was over-ridden, or went too fast.   >>


I didn't know if you wanted a response from me or not, but here goes.  BTW, 
you write extremely well.  My story wasn't written using scientific data to 
explain why my horse crashed.  I tend to try and keep things simple (simple 
minds like mine handle life better this way).  Simply put, I believe stress 
can cause colic, my first 50 with Dance stressed him out more than he was 
able to handle and down he went.  The story is written with emotion, not a 
plethora of facts.  Death, and near Death experiences, are emotional ones.  

You'd be amazed at how many emails I'm getting from people, just starting 
endurance riding, thanking me for my story.  A lot of them assumed that if 
they make it through the vet checks, everything is perfectly fine.  This is 
not always the case. The sad thing is most of them are afraid to post what 
they write to me on RC because of the negativity of so many.  

The leap from doing a 25 to a 50 is a great one; I hope you'd agree with me 
on that point.  When you do a 50 you'd better have your act together and your 
horse has to be ready.  This really is all I was trying to say in my story.

I know a lot of riders don't like my writings and, if I were thin skinned I 
would never bother writing them.  But the negative responses don't really 
annoy me like they probably should.  I got their attention and that's all I 
really wanted.  Cheryl can try and ban me in Arizona; Angie can try and have 
me eliminated from AERC; I'm quite amazed at the reaction here.  The fact 
that a few sexual innuendo's in my stories result in some labeling me a 
danger to children and against the American way of life is a reaction I was 
not expecting.  I can only laugh at such nonsense.

Your "lessons learned" was one of the best that I've ever read on ridecamp.  
I hope you post more often.  I knew Ivers wouldn't take your criticism well; 
it seems to be one of his few weaknesses.  Normally, Tom's writngs are full 
of more facts, research and science than I can digest at one sitting.  But 
I'm sure the man is a genius and I hope to meet him one day.  Roger's post 
was factual; mine was emotional.  I couldn't write a story using only facts 
if I tried; like some have said I have trouble differentiating between 
reality and fiction.  

cya,
Howard