> Anyone who thinks that endurance rides should offer ANY cash prizes
> needs to turn racehorse themselves and do the human equivalent of equine
> endurance rides. . .in a marathon or triathalon, I guarantee that you
> would not tear up your own knees, feet, heart or lungs, or "compete" to
> exaustion or expiration for any amount of money.
Actually, I know plenty of people who do just this (witness Kerry Strugg
vaulting with a sprained ankle for an Olympic Medal). The difference is,
as free adults we are entitled to make that decision for ourselves. I
brutallize my body at endurance rides all the time. However, we ought
not be asking our horses to do the same (personally, I don't think we
ought to be allowing children to make these same decisions for themselves
either, but that is another topic entirely).
It is because I have seen what it is that humans are willing to do to
themselves in pursuit of ____________, that I am against cash prizes for
endurance rides; not because the nature of the sport will change
(endurance rides are a race...that is what it means when the first one
across the finish line is the winner), but because it will attract a
different type of competitor.
Right now, people who ride endurance do it for the love of it...and
pretty much, that's it (although that is changing too). If there are
large cash prizes, it will attract competitors who do it for the money.
I am, however, one of the people who isn't particularly interested in
promoting the sport in the general population or even the general equine
population. I don't care about seeing it on TV, I don't want broad
coverage...then you will attract people who are interested in the publicity.
For me, finishing an endurance ride is a private thing. It is between me
and my horse...and maybe other people who have shared the same experience
so they can understand the nature of the accomplishment.
This month there was an article in Horse Show (AHSA) magazine about the
WEC in Kansas (by Genie Stewart-Spears). It was a great article and
covered the event well...and it described a sport that I have ABSOLUTELY
NO INTEREST in participating in. I don't want to train my horse in a
swimming pool, on a tread mill. I don't want to have a multitude of crew
members taking care of my horse, I don't want to have to manage the
logistics of a vet check down to the last nit. And I don't want the AERC
rides to turn into this kind of effort.
I want to drive out in the middle of nowhere, and ride out into the
middle of nowhere...just me and my horse. As Stagg Newman put it in this
month's EN. "One horse, one rider, one day, one hundred miles." Nothing
more AND nothing less. Nothing compares.
Leave the big prizes and the glory and publicity to the FEI/International
crowd. There is no way that you are going to be able to convince me that
it is the same sport.
kat
Orange County, Calif