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RE: [RC] What's in a name? - Bob Morris

David:
You state <<<< If I'm not mistaken, early in this sport, all
we had was 100 mile rides, and
those were endurance rides. Then 50's came along, and
"endurance" got
expanded to 50's too, even though a 50 isn't anywhere near
as hard as a 100>>>>

To quote from an article I have before me "In 1975 AERC had
about 300 members and approximately 50 riders.....The term
"endurance riding" is defined as an athletic event in which
the same horse and rider covered a measured distance
(usually 50 to 100 miles)....

This was in the infancy of the Conference.

Bob

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of David
LeBlanc
Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2003 3:45 PM
To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [RC] What's in a name?


Joe said:

... an LD ride is not an endurance ride.
Challenging for some people, and some horses, yes -- but
not
an endurance ride.

The funny thing is that all these rides are sanctioned by
the American
_Endurance_ Ride Conference. We're members of the American
_Endurance_ Ride
Conference. Seems to me that a casual observer would say
that we're all
doing _endurance_ rides. It isn't the American Endurance and
Newbie Training
Ride Conference.

Meanings of words can and do change over time, sometimes
quickly. "Hacker"
used to be a computer lover, now it's an evil person that
makes trouble on
computers. "Starve" used to mean "to die", now it means
really hungry. If
I'm not mistaken, early in this sport, all we had was 100
mile rides, and
those were endurance rides. Then 50's came along, and
"endurance" got
expanded to 50's too, even though a 50 isn't anywhere near
as hard as a 100.


Something else we see with words is that once individual
people start using
them to mean one thing, they tend to resist changing
meanings. I have a
friend who puts "Hacker" on his tax form as his job, but he
doesn't break
into computers - he started using the word 25-30 years ago,
and to him it
never changed. I think there's some of that going on here -
to people who
started before there even was sanctioned LD rides, the word
"endurance"
means something different than it does to those of us that
came along later.

Words have power, too - the long-time riders probably can't
relate very
well, but think of this - I go and get started doing an LD
enurance ride,
pay my money to the American _Endurance_ Ride Conference,
and now there's a
bunch of people telling me I'm not an endurance rider. This
doesn't really
make sense, esp. from the new rider's POV - I go to rides
sanctioned by the
AERC, I pay my dues to the AERC, but somehow I'm not an
endurance rider? Why
didn't I join the American Limited Distance Ride Conference
instead? Is it
any wonder that a lot of new LD riders feel like they're
second-class
members? I don't think that's the message we want to give to
these folks.

I also think it's an artificial distinction - in my book,
75's and up are
_real_ endurance. Any one-day event shorter than that just
isn't all that
tough. Heck - 85-90% of everyone who starts LDs and 50's
finish. Can't be
all that hard if nearly everyone finishes. 75 and up, it's
more like 60%.
But I don't think we're going to vote in a change that says
that only about
5-10% of us are _real_ endurance riders.

I understand the argument that 25 miles isn't that tough to
a horse, and
doesn't push a horse that hard. It's true that just about
anything with 4
hooves, a mane and a tail that's basically sound and healthy
can be
conditioned well enough to go 25 miles in 6 hours. I'd
submit that the vast
majority of those horses can also be conditioned well enough
to go 50 miles,
but only a few can go up to 75, and fewer still can do a
100.

I know there's a bunch of you whose minds are made up, and I
can talk (or
type) forever and it won't change a thing. I am asking folks
to try and put
themselves into the shoes of someone new, think about how
all this sounds. I
only got started at this 5 years ago, and I'm sure not an
"LD-er" anymore -
I have a lot more "endurance" rides than LD under my belt -
but I do
remember all too well how it felt - and I see some of the
same people here
saying the same thing. I'd rather welcome new people with
open arms - why
can't we all be "endurance" riders - just some of us do
limited distance
endurance rides, others do 50 mile endurance rides, and the
really tough and
gifted people do 100 mile endurance rides?

I'll shut up for the moment - need to get back to writing
that I get paid to
do - just something to think about...



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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

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Replies
[RC] What's in a name?, David LeBlanc