RE: [Enduranceriders] Fw: Rider Education

["Bob Morris" <bobmorris@rmci.net>]

Truman makes some very good points here but before we get into them let me make one covering statement. I do not believe that Truman. Mile, Steve, my self or very many of the others are in disagreement about the necessity of education. In fact I would say that the three of us are in agreement and any comments we make are of an exploratory type. Of the Question ??? How can we best serve the membership??? (how do you make those upside down Spanish question marks???)

 

Not one of us has the ultimate solution as there are so many varying degrees of education needed from rank "what is a horse" to the most sophisticated FEI needs.

 

If elected to represent you we need to know your NEEDS. Once that is a known then we can plan on the "how to deliver".

 

I do feel that the education starts on the local club level and progresses up . It cannot function efficiently on a TRICKLE DOWN  mode.

 

I see the AERC Office being a source of materials, if you so desire it ,all it an AERC Office FAQ. Perhaps we need a volunteer to handle this info gathering, assembly , dispersion. We do to a point have such with the Riders Handbook, the Ride Managers Hand book the Vet Manual, the AERC Rules and Regulations and so on. BUT, when was the last time you saw timely publication of such manuals?  If they are not out there they are no good to any one. Every member of the AERC has a right to be delivered of each of these manuals. It will be one of my EDUCATION EFFORTS to assure that each and every AERC Member is in possession of these manuals.

 

If this list would answer me just one simple question, PLEASE. When was the last time you received a copy of the AERC Rules and Regulations. Realize the rules and regulations were modified over one year ago, they were modified again at the last annual meeting. What was the last time you were afforded a CORRECT copy of these rules. Rules are part of education, what is correct and what is not correct.

 

The membership must not exist in a vacuum EDUCATION IS ESSENTIAL.

 

Bob Morris

-----Original Message-----
From: Truman Prevatt, PhD [mailto:truman.prevatt@netsrq.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 2:48 PM
To: Enduranceriders@egroups.com
Cc: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: Re: [Enduranceriders] Fw: Rider Education

There is an interesting juxtaposition with the ongoing debate in the presidential election which I would like to open up for discussion as it relates to rider education within AERC. I think this is a very important issue which is clearly specified in the rules.

If I can play the advocate of the Devil for a moment, let me ask the following question:  "Is the AERC too big and to remote from the riders to fulfill a front-line role of rider education?" Is rider education something best left to regional organizations, with the support of AERC? In the regions with strong regional organizations, for example the Southeast the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, Mountain and Central these organizations seem to promote rider education a one of their main goals. In general these organization draw many more people to their conventions that people from the particular attend the AERC convention. Also the educational programs at the regional conventions are usually very good.

I will now speak for SERA which I know fairly well. The comradeship that grows within the regional organizations leads itself to an environment conducive to rider education. I know at all SERA rides there are special meeting for new riders as an integral part of the ride meeting. SERA representatives and one of the ride vets perform this role.  The vets that tend to vet many rides in the SE know the horses and riders and they are very helpful in the educational function. I believe this concept is common in the most of the other regional organizations. At the SERA we bring in top people in the SE region to speak on topics such as electrolytes and metabolic problems, supplements and the endurance horse, feeding the endurance horse, etc.

In FL there is a distance riding organization which is primarly CTR, but they do sanction endurance rides. It is Southeast Distance Riders Association (SEDRA - not to be confused with SERA). In FL there are two (not one but two) distance riding clinics a year. The first in May is run by SEDRA and is a two day clinic which covers all the necessary information for the beginner to start distance riding. It's focus is CTR but the basics of CTR apply just as well to endruance. The second clinic is in Sept or Oct is put on by the Florida Horsemen's Association which last March  just put on the 50th running of the FL 3 day 100 mile CTR. The FHA clinic is also a weekend clinic that covers all the basics of distance riding. Between the FHA and SEDRA distance clinics it is not unusal to have over 100 new riders showing up to learn. I think the moral of this story is the closer the educational process gets to the riders the better it is.

Each region is slightly different in its environment, ambient weather conditions. Does this impact on the utility of a "one size fits all" national education program? So should rider education be delegated to regional endurance organizations?  We will ignore the fact for the sake of this discussion that not every region has a strong regional organization.

In general I would like to see a good discussion on the role or regional and even local organizations within the realm of education in endurance riding and should AERC make better "use" of these organizations?

Truman

Susan Garlinghouse wrote:

Below is a response I received from Steve Rutter, which I'm forwarding with his permission.  His DAL statement specifically mentioned rider education, and my question to him was how did he specifically hope to implement that.  I've edited it slightly---just removed a few personal chitchats, none of the relevant material. Several other nominees have also mentioned rider education, perhaps they would care to comment on their own views as well (obviously, rider education is near and dear to my heart)<g>. Susan G 

----- Original Message -----

From: Stephen W. Rutter

To: Susan GarlinghouseSent: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 7:43 AMSubject: Rider Education

 Hi Susan, <snip, snip> One of the primary functions of AERC is education. It has to be to justify our being a nonprofit, tax exempt organization and more importantly, we need AERC's educational efforts for the higher purpose of the safety and welfare of the horse. Yes, I do have some specific ideas on accomplishing better education:          I feel the Education Committee needs to be charged by the Board with advancing an active,                 written program of rider education, both to accomplish it and to emphasize education's importance         within AERC.         Endurance News could carry many more articles on myriad topics of interest to the                             riders which would benefit the members' use of and caring for the horse. For example, we                     subscribe to The Horse and enjoy and benefit from the excellent articles found there. Why not have         abbreviated articles on such topics in our magazine? Too many riders follow the approach of                mimicking what they have seen done by others with no knowledge of whether or not it is                     appropriate for their horse or situation.         Another ripe area for rider education is the Ride itself. I would like to see the culture develop at             Rides where the ride managers and veterinarians are comfortable counseling riders that are                 pushing the limits of their horse on any given day. I know that the Veterinary Committee is making         efforts to improve the uniformity of vetting and I feel charging the ride vets with this educational             function as well would be beneficial to all. Some vets do this now quite well so I know it helps. In summary, I guess you could say my heart lies with preserving this sport by nudging AERC in the direction of better knowledge of and care for the horse in long distance riding.I interpret "TO FINISH IS TO WIN"  means the horse-rider team that completes the course the "best for them" that day rather than who can complete the distance in the fastest time. Our horses are our friends and pets, not among our tools, to be used and discarded. Again, I applaud your efforts in this education process. Steve Rutter   

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