What is the purpose of NC?

[guest@endurance.net]

Tom Dean bdci@navicom.com
I have read most of the NC posts and I find them to be written with
passion by riders who strongly believe in their feelings about how a
horse/rider should qualify for this race.  Virtually every sport, equine
or not, has a NC.  Most sports are unique on how they qualify their
participants.  Some qualifications are very open and fair, other sports
use very closed systems to limit the field.  Some organizations also use
NC as a celebration of their sport, others have rituals so elaborate it
borders on religion.  It is important that the NC exemplifies what an
organization is about and the more people that participate in that NC
environment the better.

I have been bothered with the comments that “Newbies are not experienced
enough to ride in a NC”.  The implication is that they do not have enough
experience to take care of their horses.  I would agree that experience is
important in the care of a horse, but knowledge and common sense are much
more important.  We have an “experienced rider” in our region that has
2100 miles and has completed ”only” 36 of 57 races.  This rider would
easily qualify for NC.  Whether a rider is a newbie or oldie, should not
be an issue.  A newbie could be a person with years of non-endurance
performance horse experience who just started endurance or oldie could be
an experienced endurance rider who is tough on horses.  I have used NCs in
other equine sports to be a wonderful opportunity to see how more
successful rider/horses compete.  I would think for the improvement of
endurance riding and the care of the horses that you would want to
encourage as many riders as possible to be involved.

If you create an elitism on qualification, then we are no better than the
breed halter or western pleasure NC shows where who you are, who trains
your horses and what tack is on your horse has more to do than the quality
of the horse/rider.  I would think that wider the door is open for
qualification, the more quality thoughtful endurance riders would walk
through and those that need experience would have more exposure to the
right way to take care of their horses. AERC is trying hard to find
balance with their rules.  I think they are still too limiting, but it
appears that the NC qualification is a work in progress.