In a message of , Vicki Nichols (1:114/212) (1:114/212) 
writes:
 >JM> Point is, you can be one of the top riders in your country,
 >JM> and still have a lot to learn about being a good rider and
 >JM> horseman.
 >
 >     Ain't it the truth!  Say, did you find yourself disagreeing with 
 >Melanie as often as my horsehoer and I did?
Probably not, since 
1) I missed a lot of the coverage and
2) I have learned a fair amount about what I'm looking at but there's still a 
lot I miss
What kind of disagreements do you mean?  Remember, half the time I can only 
scratch my head and say "that looks wrong" and I have to depend on Melanie to 
tell me that so-and-so has his reins too long, after which I can see it.  
Sometimes I can't see exactly how a rail has come down (belly rub vs. taking 
it with the hind foot) until I see the slow-motion. 
Mis-judged distances I can see for myself; somebody being left behind I can 
usually see for myself.  If the horse goes "what's that?" at the Liverpool, 
that's pretty obvious, so I usually catch it.  There might have been one or 
two things where I disagreed with her, but now I can't remember what they 
were.  
And in all fairness to Melanie, I feel compelled to point out that I don't 
know where she was sitting or how much she was forced to depend on the 
monitor vs. her own eyes.  She may not have been looking at the same view we 
were when she made some of these comments, and TV cameras can do funny things 
to distances.  
Extra note:  too bad NBC didn't take the time to SHOW us Melanie standing in 
the middle of that huge oxer with the six-foot-plus spread instead of her 
having to tell us all.  And too bad we couldn't see her standing next to the 
biggest vertical.  Awesome to think these horses could jump right over my 
head, or that I could lay down with my arms over my head in that big oxer and 
still not be able to reach from side to side (I'm 5' 4").  It's more fun for 
the non-horsey viewer if they have a better sense of the scale of things.
--- QM v1.31 
---------------