Thursday, September 15, 2011

Endurance championships "a camping trip with your horse"

EMCFrontenac.ca - Full Article

Posted Sep 15, 2011 By Craig Bakay

EMC News One thing that seems to set the Ontario Competitive Trail Riding Association's events apart is that unlike many equestrian events, the competition aspect often takes a back seat to camaraderie and fellowship, said Rick Steele, one of the organizers of the Seoul's Corners competition held at Commodore's farm recently.

"It's not unusual for a rider to stop their own race to help someone else who gets into some trouble," he said.

And it seems that's universal amongst these horse people.

"It's like a camping trip with your horse," said Dagmar Downes, who, along with husband John and bay Princess Leah, comes in her sleeper horse trailer all the way from Mountain Grove.

"I enjoy it," she said. "It gets me out.

"We try to get to about 10 of these a year and next year we'd like to go to one in the U.S.

"We'd like to go to every event but there are some things like injuries to the horse and rider that keep you out of some events."

Injuries to the riders notwithstanding, the well-being of the horses is paramount. They even have categories like Best Conditioning and High Vet Score, and horses are checked by vets before each event and monitored along the trail...

Read more here:
http://www.emcfrontenac.ca/20110915/news/Endurance+championships+%22a+camping+trip+with+your+horse%22

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