<To anybody out there who doesn't believe that there
should be any awards given to the "hot shoes" that finished somewhere in the
front, ask yourself if you are involved in the right
sport.>
<Folks, there is competitive trail riding out there, where
from what I understand, they deduct points off your score if you go too
fast. There are also numerous of riding clubs that have their Sunday
afternoon rides. Perfect for those who like to take their horses out on
the trails without pushing them hard and as many of you say "keep them
happy". Why then are we even participating in endurance rides? Why
are we even giving out awards for first place? I mean, what do I not
understand?>
I don't believe there should be awards for first place,
top ten and I would love to see the AERC year end award "point system" go
away. Perhaps quite a few others who feel the same way I do (maybe
not, but for the sake of this conversation, bear with me). If there actually are
a large number of people who agree with the above
statement, and we all went away to Competitive Trail or Sunday trail rides, who
would the "hot shoes" get to beat at the endurance rides? Most of the
people I have seen at rides, come to ride with no desire to race, win or top
ten. They enjoy their horse, the miles and the trail. As it was
pointed out to me in a conversation a few months ago, the winners don't
*beat* 30-60-70 horse/rider teams. They *beat* the six or seven that
are actively seeking to win the ride. However, when you win or top ten,
you get to say that you WON the ride (oops, RACE) and there were however many
entries. It sounds alot more impressive than saying you outran 6-7 other
people.
The other problem that might occur if all of the non-racers went
to another sport is financing the rides. If you had to hire a vet for a
handful of riders (oops, RACERS) your entry fees would be quite high.
You
might have to learn to live with all of us non-racing types not being impressed
by the whole racing mentality and let us stay.
