Re: Re: FEI Endurance

["Duncan Fletcher" <dfletche@gte.net>]

Recieved the following privately. Let me reply publically (because may also
have focused on this narrowly) while suppressing the identity of the sender.

Please note I said potential problems and the need to change vet standards
because of the nature of the race. Professional atheletes generally don't
enter a race just to finish. But they spend a lot of time training with the
intent to be competitive. I think Ti in his defense of professionalism
(which would be great if all professionals were professional by his
definition) overly discounts the the power of money to change the sport at
that upper level (and note that it has little effect on the lower levels -
you can still go enter a low level golf or tennis tournement). Actually, the
upper levels are already influenced to some extent by money - the ability to
endorse products or write a book but not to the degree as in other sports.
And it does not follow that they are not worried about the next race. They
are always balancing that, sometimes well, sometimes not. Given that the
atheletes in endurance are not making the decisions, appropriate vet
controls need to be in place. One other thing that can aid in encouraging
the balance to the long term is to have a series of races that have greater
importance than a single race (read that as Olympics) - to a skier, the
World Cup is far more important than an Olympic medal, both in prestige and
money. But because the money is generally in product endorsements, will the
horse community respond more to Olympic gold, or some equivilent of Skiing's
World Cup. The potential problems need not manifest themselves with
appropriate controls. But money eventually comes to all sports and needs to
be dealt with. Avery Brundage has been dead for a while. Instead of wringing
hands at the inevitable, encourage solutions that will reduce the problems.

Duncan Fletcher
dfletche@gte.net

>
> . No one is
> > riding 'just to finish'.
> >
> > Oh how true it seems to be...the bigger the race, the faster they try to
> go. Not a worry about the next day, week or year for the horse.