Hard to measure....
Posted by Loes Knopper on Monday, June 25, 2012
... and I am at the stage again where I grow relatively, quietly, desperate as I have no idea how many people are riding and where... Luckily, having Chazbo has taught me to lower my adrenaline & stress levels, so I will take it as it comes, take it my stride as it were, plough on with the message and hope for the best... I have had some confirmations and it seems we will be having several rides in Scotland, England, Italy, Ireland and possible the Netherlands and South Africa too.
I remember I was biting my nails and scanning the website, facebook group, TrotOn.com and my emails all the time hoping for more and more people to confirm dates, routes and number of riders. On the day it all turned out different anyway for various reasons - injuries, severe weather conditions, sad family affairs and all sorts. On my own ride there were no shows (I strongly suspect hangovers) but also people I didn't expect showing up asking if they could please join us. One of them, Natascha, showed up with 2 of her icelandic ponies. That was a really nice surprise.
I thought making it possible to ride on a day of your own choice in September, and starting my advertising nearly 3 months earlier would result in a bigger uptake but this does (so far) not seem to be the case although almost everybody participating last years is on board again for 2012. The press here and abroad does not seem to be so keen to help out; perhaps they thought last years results didn't merit it...I don't know. Personally, I think that eventhough we didn't make the goal, from scratch and out of nowhere we still had 245 riders in 10 countries and I think that wasn't a bad start..
Perhaps my expectations were a tad naieve and too optimistic because of the very positive reactions when I first suggested doing something like this but the point is that we did make people more aware of the work World Horse Welfare does and we did raise a nice sum of money which any one of would most probably not be able to donate on their own.
Hence I think it was a good idea with a good result, and it is worth continuing it this year - just need to remind myself not worry and just let it happen... I have enough grey hairs as it is thank you very kuch. Granted, my grey hairs are now hiding under a funky mixure of orange, pink, blue, brown and red hair.....
Talking about red; I would kindly ask all riders this year to wear something red to raise awareness and offer moral support for the people and unfortunate horses having to deal with AHS, African Horse sickness. It is a disease which is all too often still fatal and more research and funding is needed to help fight the disease. A new charity is being set up to coordinate efforts to combat the dreadful dissease and raise funds but this is not yet operational.. from the bottom of my heart I wish them all the best and will keep you posted here....
Best wishes
Ride on
Loes Knopper
I remember I was biting my nails and scanning the website, facebook group, TrotOn.com and my emails all the time hoping for more and more people to confirm dates, routes and number of riders. On the day it all turned out different anyway for various reasons - injuries, severe weather conditions, sad family affairs and all sorts. On my own ride there were no shows (I strongly suspect hangovers) but also people I didn't expect showing up asking if they could please join us. One of them, Natascha, showed up with 2 of her icelandic ponies. That was a really nice surprise.
I thought making it possible to ride on a day of your own choice in September, and starting my advertising nearly 3 months earlier would result in a bigger uptake but this does (so far) not seem to be the case although almost everybody participating last years is on board again for 2012. The press here and abroad does not seem to be so keen to help out; perhaps they thought last years results didn't merit it...I don't know. Personally, I think that eventhough we didn't make the goal, from scratch and out of nowhere we still had 245 riders in 10 countries and I think that wasn't a bad start..
Perhaps my expectations were a tad naieve and too optimistic because of the very positive reactions when I first suggested doing something like this but the point is that we did make people more aware of the work World Horse Welfare does and we did raise a nice sum of money which any one of would most probably not be able to donate on their own.
Hence I think it was a good idea with a good result, and it is worth continuing it this year - just need to remind myself not worry and just let it happen... I have enough grey hairs as it is thank you very kuch. Granted, my grey hairs are now hiding under a funky mixure of orange, pink, blue, brown and red hair.....
Talking about red; I would kindly ask all riders this year to wear something red to raise awareness and offer moral support for the people and unfortunate horses having to deal with AHS, African Horse sickness. It is a disease which is all too often still fatal and more research and funding is needed to help fight the disease. A new charity is being set up to coordinate efforts to combat the dreadful dissease and raise funds but this is not yet operational.. from the bottom of my heart I wish them all the best and will keep you posted here....
Best wishes
Ride on
Loes Knopper
