FW is 'feather weight' and I'm not. Over a decade ago some tiny hineys in the most populated region were griping about how its so hard for them to get into regional placings versus especially heavyweights because of wives who add their non-riding spouse to the membership to support AERC and # of placings is taken by the # of registered members in a weight division rather than by the # of folks actually entering rides.
I thought it was BS and that the org has too many weight divisions and posted that "well put your DH in your weight division, its perfectly legal to be heavier that the weight division boundaries. if they do enter 1 or 2 rides some year" and then I thought "I can't make them have fewer weight divisions but I can put myself in the lightest division." Years pass with me only owning dinks and not getting to enough rides to be competitive no matter what.
Then I got Tanza, stayed in the FW division and wow, he has been in the standings a couple times and yes I noticed that the LW, MW and HW divisions were all more competitive in our region and the bottom point level listed in them was much higher than the # of points we had earned. So I felt a bit of 'white privilege' type guilt but then thought Oh well: I didn't just pick the least competitive division and it is not like weighing more gives me some advantage over actual tiny hineys so I'm just going to leave myself in this division anyway; I'm sure at some point there will be a few high level tiny hiney riders and it will no longer be the easy division for year end point accumulation.
So today I read a post griping about heavier riders changing to FW and knocking the true waifs out of placings. I think the big gripe was about folks who had started in a heavier weight division and then dropped down mid-season. I still think its a bunch of whiny B.S. If someone is kicking your teeny little ass point wise, but being left in the dust by a Christoph or someone and they drop to your skinny waif division and make it more competitive you have the option of going to more rides, or riding at a higher speed to get placings points or doing a 100 for the bonus points if getting a jacket or vest is a big deal to you. Shut up and ride.
Monday, October 7, 2019
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Tanza was awesome at Red Canyon ride
The Duck wants riders to wait 30 minutes after their horse pulses down before going to the vet at checks. Tanza would come into a check and be dragging me around looking for food, I'd get his mash and hay out and he'd hardly lift his nose out of the food for 25-30 minutes so it worked perfectly for us.
On day one I got uneasy about trail and then J picked up on it later and we doubled back when we should not have. Wow was he mad. I knew he likes to go for placings but he had said he wanted to ride 3 days so I really could not grok worrying about finish order on day 1. So I promised him I would not ride with him after the vet check. I missed a turn and ended up looping back to the vet check, yuck but it was not a huge # of extra miles and Tanza drank good so it was OK. Then coming back in to camp I had caught up with a couple of folks and we 3 caught up to a couple that were leading their horses because the horses had gotten stupid about the cows earlier on the trail. We 3 were all politely staying behind but the gal got all crabby that 'you're riding our ass.' Later her horse hit 8000 miles so I think she just had jitters about making the milestone and is not normally a grouch; but between the 2 grouches and thinking the gals that were just a bit behind me when I missed my turn might have noticed and chose to let me go wrong cuz placings fever again even thought we were all at least an hour behind Christoph, I was pretty blue that evening.
I took day 2 off, took my tire to Panguitch to have it replaced. On day 3, Tanza was wanting to keep up with a gal who was going fast, she had 3 horses she had brought to the ride and was riding not quite at Christoph pace but to finish about 5th place. Finally I got Tanza to stop thinking he could catch her speedy gray horse than S passed me and was going pretty fast plus I knew she doesn't like to ride with someone else most days (she was 1/2 of pair behind me when I turned wrong on day 1 so she has one person she loves to ride with at least on her other horse.) Next horse behind her was Otis B and he let me ride with him. What a treat riding with a top pioneer event rider. Normally I would have felt obligated to separate from Otis and Phyllis cuz they ride together all the time and a 3rd horse would be a nuisance but Phyllis had SFDT surgery on her mare in April so she was not riding. Otis' horse likes to follow vs lead so Tanza was thrilled, he enjoys being in front as long as he has a wing man or posse right behind him. Otis and his mare were still really setting the pace as Tanza would walk if she got too far behind and pick up a trot if he heard her trotting behind him but the 2 horses both worked well riding like this.
Okay, I'll finish the account in a 2nd post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)