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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Revelation 7

7. Let's see if I can put this into words. I'm having a hard time describing what I mean.

When I'm bitterly dissapointed in endurance, or feel like I "failed" a ride - it's usually because my horse has ended up injuired.

In dressage I can be dissapointed without the horse being injured. It's really a freeing feeling. How nice to "go for gold" during a competition, in a sport that I'm unlikely to severely injury or kill my horse!

That still doesn't capture exactly what I wanted to say, but it's close.

Edited:

JB, in her comment, said exactly what I was trying to convey. I should pay her a copywrite fee and paint it on my horse trailer. Here it is:

"More then just bruised ego's are at stake in endurance, as the horses whole life and well being is on the line".

Absolutely sums up the way I feel. A bruised ego is perfectly healthy and dressage will keep me humble, but there will also be shows where I totally nail it and will enjoy struttin' around. :)Endurance is not the place for the ego. What I ask my horse to do in an endurance ride is an incredible feat of....endurance. I gratefully accept what my horse offers and thank my Lord that I am blessed with such a wonderful horse. Not so much in dressage. We can get better better better BETTER!!!!!!!!

*insert manical laughter*

8 comments:

  1. well I am taking is that the show went okay then...because other wise I am sure you would have thought of one of the 150 ways a horse can kill itself doing nothing, not to mention the 300 ways it could happen at a dressage show :P

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  2. Yeah.....let's see if I can describe my feeling better.

    I guess what I was trying to say is that most of the time disspointment in endurance (at least for me so far) usually comes because I dind't do the right thing by the horse and I'm stressed and worried becuase I'm looking at a potential injury.

    Dressage is different - disspointment is based more on performance and it's likely that she's NOT injuried, we just need to practice more.

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  3. More then just bruised ego's are at stake in endurance, as the horses whole life and well being in on the line.

    Whereas in dressage, you win or you don't, you don't have to pass a vet check because there is such a high risk of health problems.

    I understand what you mean!

    Just saw that Buck Meadows Boogie was cancelled. Will you still do Desert Gold if you are not able to do Buck Meadows?

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  4. Yep - definately doing desert gold. I'm more likely not to do 2 days though. I'll have to see how the first day goes.

    so Friday is an absolutely and Saturday is a maybe.

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  5. And JB - you couldn't ahve said it better about the bruised egos and dressage versus endurance. I feel like I should post that on the side of my trailer:

    "More is at stake in endurance than a bruised egos"

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  6. If I go, I'll probably pick Friday since your deffinatly doing that day. On multi-days, do you have to arrive for a vet check on Thursday?

    I think we have coined a new endurance slogan!

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  7. That's what most people do. I think it's better to let hte horse rest overnight and get the vet check over early than trying to get it down in the morning wtih the excitement of the start. It's easier for ride management too.

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  8. I never never never never take for granted what my horse is doing in a ride. Really, I just have to picture me trying to trot for 50 miles. Through sand or up hills. Or for 1 mile. They are just amazing to do this for us.

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