Page 18 - January 2007 The Game

18 The Game, January 2007 Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Cowboy Up?
By evenSteven
During my first year as an exercise rider, I was surprised to discover a general aversion towards the use of safety gear. Often, I listened while older, more experienced riders waxed nostalgic for the good old days when exercising racehorses didn’t mean wearing a helmet or flak jacket. In almost the same breath, most of these veterans were also willing to list a myriad of personal injuries: broken necks, backs, collarbones, jaws and teeth; separated shoulders, busted legs and arms, fractured vertebrae and tailbones, an endless variety of concussions and torn ligaments. Without exception, everyone assured me, the reality confronting anyone who rides racehorses is not if you get injured, but when.
It didn’t take me long to realize that a flak jacket and helmet comprise only the most basic protection. After many painful exits from the starting gate, I finally start- ed wearing foam kneepads, the kind used by industrial floor installers. I have been delighted with the results. Even though horses still jumped sideways in the gate and banged my knees against the steel frame, with kneepads in place, I barely felt a thing.
My next modification came in the form of a mouthguard. For years my dentist had been pestering me to wear one because, habitually, I grind my teeth. But it was only after a couple of different horses tossed their heads and caught me in the face, breaking one tooth and chipping two others, that I decided a mouthguard might indeed be worth exploring. There’s nothing like a two thousand dollar dental bill to broaden your horizons.
But I wasn’t prepared for the social roasting my new protection invited. For reasons I couldn’t fathom, my kneepads seemed to inspire a host of scornful and sarcastic speculation, ranging in subject from my religious upbringing - "You must spend a lot of time kneelin’ and prayin’ to have to wear them things" - to libidinous double entendres – "C’mon over here and I’ll show you something worth dropping onto your knees for!".
At first I was rather amazed by the colourful commentary. I thought perhaps the ribbing would cease after another
exercise rider ripped her knee open coming out of the starting gate. Upon her return–after numerous stitches and missed days of work–she confessed she regretted not wearing some extra protection herself. Despite this apparent vindication of my much maligned kneepads, the sarcastic commentary continued unabated. Before long, I grew amused by all the attention, especially given that a number of my habitual critics walked with a perpetual hitch in their giddy-up.
Gradually I came to realize the teasing had less to do with my kneepads than with a prevalent racetrack attitude that frowns heavily upon any perceived weakness. I suspect this attitude, in part, stems from superstition; using safety gear concedes the possibility of getting hurt, an absolute no-no on the backstretch, where confidence–or at least the appearance of it–reigns supreme. There’s even a favoured expression which captures this sentiment of backstretch bravado: Cowboy up!
But what does Cowboy Up really mean? The online Urban Dictionary suggests anything from Don’t be a coward to Quit your whining to When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Here’s one of many examples I’ve heard used on the backstretch: Trainer leads plunging, bucking, barely-under-control horse into shedrow where hesitant gallop boy waits and wonders aloud: "Do you think maybe he needs a little something to take the edge off?” Trainer (shaking her head with contempt): Cowboy up!
Fortunately, not everybody on the backstretch believes the hype. One day, during my first couple of weeks as an exercise rider, I was taken aside by a long-time groom who issued this warning: "Don’t ever listen to people who tell you to cowboy up. Cowboy up is a load of horse manure. Cowboy up is what a trainer says who doesn’t care whether you get hurt or not when they want you to get on a horse that’s not safe to ride."
What Cowboy Up really suggests then is an attitude, a take-no-prisoners approach to riding – consequences be damned, throw caution to the wind and let the chips fall where they may. Mixed metaphors aside, to me there’s a significant difference between bravery
and foolishness. Anyone who exercises racehorses demonstrates bravery on a daily basis. It takes a certain amount of physical and mental toughness to accept the potential consequences of riding a thousand pound animal at breakneck speeds. How much more cowboy up does it get than making that choice a dozen times a day, seven days a week, ten months of the year? Nearly every day this past year at Hastings at least one rider came off a horse the hard way–some days as many as four or five riders hit the ground in a single morning. Just like that, some of them were done riding for the rest of the year. Wouldn’t common sense seem to favour wearing whatever protection necessary to increase your in- the-saddle productivity and decrease your chances of career-ending injury? For me, the choice is easy.
Riding racehorses is as dangerous as any "extreme" sport. But other extreme sports seem content to let the dangers arise from the activity, not from a lack of protection. Even skateboarders, renowned for their toughness and crusty punk attitude, wear kneepads, elbow pads, and often helmets while practicing their craft, as do extreme cyclists of all stripes, freestylers or downhill specialists. When I asked one of my hardcore biking friends why he wears so much protection to bomb down the mountainside, he looked at me as if only a fool would ask such a question.
In the last few years, some bullriders have begun to forego cowboy hats in favour of helmets for their frantic eight seconds. But is this not considered sacrilege in the birthplace of Cowboy Up? Here’s what I think: once upon a time there was a cowboy who liked bull-riding so much he wanted to do it forever. But everywhere he looked he saw his cowboy-hatted, bull-riding friends with their brains leaking all over the rodeo arena. The cowboy decided if he wanted to keep doing what he loved, he’d have to wear a helmet. I bet you anything the cowboy who wore that first helmet had to put up with a lot of ribbing. But sometimes cowboy up can also mean thinking for yourself, and not being afraid to ride against the herd.
Important News for Traveling to the US
Horse people and racing fans who intend to visit tracks in the United States in 2007 should be up to speed with new requirements from the customs department of the U.S. government.
Up until now, most persons crossing the border from Canada to the United States needed only to show a valid driver’s license to be approved for entry. Starting on January 23, 2007, it will become necessary for anyone traveling by air to show a valid passport to enter George Bush’s kingdom. Driver’s license, birth certificate, citizenship cards or Blockbuster memberships will no longer do the trick.
For the next two years, traveling by car into the States will be as it usually has been, with a certain lenience in terms of identification. However, beginning on June 1, 2009, vehicular visitors to the U.S. will also have to show an up-to-date passport.
Anyone traveling with a child, particularly a lone adult, will require explicit documentation proving custodial rights. Any adult in the company of a person under 18 must provide a certified letter of consent stating that this specific journey is permitted by both parents.
Travelers by air, land and sea must also provide documentation regarding their place of residence while in the U.S. This information will be declared on your U.S. Border and Customs manifest. You must be able to provide: Street Address/Hotel Name, City, State and ZIP Code.
If any travel to the U.S. is planned in the near future, it would be wise to consult the Canadian Consular Affairs http://expediamail.com/WBRT026DD49 F275E5A10D336169060 or U.S.
Department of http://expediamail.com/WBRT026DD47 FD75E5A10D336169060 For additional information.
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