Equestrians

For this particular assignment entitled “Pop –UP-Scholarship” I had a hard time choosing a topic, I originally wanted to do a few chapters from a book about no other topic then horses what a surprise. Well I realized this was not on the versions of composing we could choose from on the assignment sheet. So I went then went to Google and when my friend Google could not help I went elsewhere. I was perusing all my usual cites before beginning the homework process, facebook, yahoo mail, um-flint mail, and while checking my yahoo mail I realized that there was an email from myself at work reminding myself that Rolex tickets have gone on sale and that I need to purchase them for 2010. So I open the site and I realize this would be the perfect idea for this pop up assignment. I then went to back to my old friend Google and searched the deaths at Rolex. Because as some, take that back most of the people did not know that the equestrian world of eventing lost another star this year. The star that only shines up in the sky now is Kingpin. Kingpin was one of the equines competitors in this year’s Rolex. I chose this because there have been deaths of not just horses but riders alike. Through Google I found a post, believed to be a blog, but I am not sure at this point, the post was entitled “Is Eventing Too Dangerous” and mentioned in this was an article from The New York Times “Equestrians’ Deaths Spread Unease in Sport” this was a really good article that really focused on the riders while they are important I want to know more about the horses that are no longer on this earth because of the famous event.

To answer the question of who’s horses and why and where they died, I cannot locate a list. So I had to settle with the most recent Kingpin. Kingpin’s story is an unusual one because this horse did not die from any injuries he acquired from missing a jump, stepping wrong, misjudging distances etc. this horse died from a rare but natural cause. (a hemorrhage of the large vessels in the abdomen). Also after reading the assignment more clearly I probably should have not chosen this topic but too late for that now.

For the pop up part of the assignment I mainly just gave my opinion of the readings I chose. The reason why I did this is because no one wants to joke about the serious aspect of losing a partner. Some of my comments seemed sarcastic in some of the articles I chose, only because it was a duh moment in my opinion. I dread the day when I have to lose my partner, hopefully it won’t be due to something we do together. There is another reason why I chose this it is because I was down in Kentucky, and at this very particular event when this horse lost his life. I thank goodness did not witness it myself but I did witness some pretty scary falls of riders and horses alike.

I did little correcting of the articles but I still attempted, the ones from the Rolex site were the ones that needed the most editing because the paragraphs were not even paragraphs and some of the way they even cut their “enters” of the lines was not the way the rules that I was taught by. The other article that was written for the New York times is well written and just flows, but then again those articles are suppose to.

In comparison the articles that I ended up choosing were not all the most “creditable” ones but they all had the same important message, when you point a finger to whose fault it is you always have three point right back at you. The New York Times article and “Is Eventing Too Dangerous?” are similar in tone and subject matter, what I liked better about the “Is Eventing Too Dangerous?” was that there was a part in the essay where the author mentions a way that the eventing committee are proposing a way to change the way the jumps are built. On the other hand I liked The New York Times article because it has good solid quotes and that does a lot for the reader.

All in all I ended up “editing” more than one article because I felt that it was necessary to understand why I chose this particular aspect of the equestrian world. It is truly sad that the USA has to be the “big man on campus” at everything we do, and to no one’s surprise someone ends up getting hurt in the end. I wish this would not happen this way but accidents happen and there are not much one can do once the star finally takes its trip to heaven and then to shine down on the rest of us.