Ridecamp: Re: [RC] XP Results

>  We operate the XP rides in a very casual
> manner and try to treat everyone as we would like to be treated.
> While other ride managers have a hard and fast rule about starters,
> we do not.  I have personally felt that it was unnecessary to add an
> entry fee for a couple of miles of riding to the pain of having to
> pull a horse early in the ride, especially when it was because of a
> rider or a horse being injured.   Neither AERC nor the XP Rides needs
> the money that bad.

"Casual and relaxed" is one thing, but what part of "start" is ambiguous?
Does AERC have to "legislate" the meaning of a word whose meaning should be
obvious?

While I understand that different protocols are often applicable to
multidays, there still needs to be a defined starting point of a ride.  Not
"a couple of miles" or whatever the rider feels like.  Refunding the entry
fee has nothing to do with AERC--that's certainly every manager's
perogative.  But "start" is "start" and some point HAS to be defined as a
starting point.

I've not attended a great number of multidays, but I've vetted a few and
actually managed a fairly successful one for a few years.  While Truman's
"checking in at the starting line" doesn't fit the multiday concept well,
I've still never seen one that did not have a defined point after which you
"have started".  Most common one I've seen is a list of people who think
they are starting, all of which saddle up and trek out of camp, and then
pass a vet a couple of hundred yards down the trail.  If the vet waves you
back, or you decide by that point that you aren't happy about this, you
haven't "started."  If you pass that point and the vet, you HAVE "started."
Casual, relaxed, informal?  Yep.  Ambiguous?  Nope.

We already have a rule stating that the ride has to have a designated finish
line.  Really, folks, is it necessary to have a rule as well that the ride
must also have a designated starting line?  From The Duck's post, it sounds
like it might be....  <sigh>

Heidi



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