AERC & FEI

["roberta carleton" <rcarleton@img.net>]

Right on Heidi!

 

An organization such as AERC, which has proven their rules and policies can set a high standard for horse welfare, competitive fun, and endurance sport enhancement, can also achieve an improvement in the sport of endurance on a world-wide basis by working with, not flailing against,  International competition.

 

As the world becomes more and more mobile, International sport of all kinds will  continue to become more accessible to more and more people.  Even schools are sending their school teams to neighbouring countries in order to expose the students to playing under different rules and among different cultures and languages. 

 

The world is one community.  We must learn to live in the whole community even if our personal goal is to never ride endurance at more than the local level.

FEI is trying to offer a level playing field for all competitors, from all cultures and with many different languages.  Not everyone speaks English.

 

AERC members can best support the promotion of the true sport of endurance, emphasising welfare of the horse and fair play, by encouraging AERC and AERC International, to be involved in working with FEI to develop policies and rules which will reflect the love of the sport while maintaining the safety and welfare of horses and competitors.

 

The idea of developing strategies and specialized diets to enable horses to carry riders and cover vast distances did not originate in the United States.  Many cultures were doing this hundreds of years before North America was even discovered.  And quite successfully.  Genghis Khan had special equine diets designed to carry his Mongol hordes as far as Europe.  We still use techniques developed by the Huns and the Mongols -- i.e. riding with stirrups, adding fat to the horse's diet, thinning the blood of over-worked horses to prevent tie-ups, etc.   Well, we have developed better techniques but the principal is the same. 

 

Even Alexander the Great, after acquiring Bucephalus in 340 B.C., travelled many thousands of miles with this horse, conquering much of the known world. The horse reportedly died in battle at the age of thirty. The love, care, and respect shown to horses throughout history has contributed to how we use and care for them today. Knowledge was shared and the techniques improved.

 

We need to continue to work with other countries, other cultures, and continue to learn as well as teach others what we know.

 

A good solid working relationship with FEI will improve and expand the sport of endurance riding.  And we, as riders never travelling more than two hours to a local ride, will use the knowledge and techniques gained through International competition, as we have learned through thousands of years of human/horse contact, to be better horsepeople and to have healthier, happier horses.

 

Roberta

 

p.s. With so many horses being flown as air cargo around the world, competing internationally and being sold to other distant countries, it has emphasised the necessity of developing a better horse travel crate to prevent breathing problems, colic, travel sickness, etc., from the currently used, poorly designed boxes.  We are forever learning!