Have been following this thread and have a
question: do people go to endurance rides to eat or to
ride?
Here in the NW Region the emphasis is on the
_ride_ and food, if any, is secondary. As Heidi said, many potlucks
sometimes excellent sometimes not. Or management provides big pots of
chili or spaghetti. Simple, inexpensive and delicious. You don't
need a headcount before the ride to prepare these things. These days most
riders have LQ, motorhomes, or campers so a large number of us eat 'at home'
anyway.
Another trend in the NW is to leave as soon as
possible after the ride is over, if you've done 50 or less. A large
number of our rides include longer distances so our awards are frequently
Sunday a.m. so I suppose that's a big factor in the 'banquet'
thing. As for the 75s and 100s, those riders don't have the time or
inclination to eat a full meal anyway even if there was any left when they
came in on a VC. At least I don't have the time since I'm crewless and
my VC time is taken up with horse care.
Bottom line, why not
omit the catered meal and focus all energy on the ride itself? That's
more than enough responsibility. Then you don't even need
pre-registration. A few of our rides offer a small discount if
pre-entered but most are just show up, pay your $$ and ride. Nice and
simple for all since the ride attendance varies little for any particular
ride from year to year. You already know how many vets you'll
need. No refunds to send and very few pre-ride phone calls to field
from my experience.
Personally I resent
a mandatory meal charge being added to my ride entry. I've found at
several West Region rides that my ride entry would not be accepted unless I
paid an additional meal charge for a meal that I knew I could not eat.
>>
a week before the ride,
after the meals have been ordered from the
caterer of course, the
cancellations rolled in....sometimes several
in a day. And we were lucky to
start 90 riders
>>had
to charge all cancellations the value of
the meals, if they occurred
after the meal count was given to the caterer.
Barbara