>They actually weren't made something else but
just the rules changed and were "called" something else.
Well, yes, Ed, they WERE made something else.
The rules were changed--the racing element was greatly altered by having to meet
a pulse criterion before the clock stops. And this STILL makes them
something else, as this rather vital difference is still in place.
BTW, there was a period of time when the shorter
distances were not sanctioned AT ALL. AERC simply dropped them in the
interests of horse safety. But many rides continued to hold them in
conjunction with sanctioned events because they DID help to attract the new
people to the sport. And if memory serves, the concept of having the clock
continue to run until a pulse criterion was met was not original to AERC
either--at least some of the PNER rides were using it for their
non-sanctioned "short rides" and some other groups may have been using it
as well. At any rate, it was the factor of bringing new people into
the sport by giving them a "stepping stone" that caused AERC to go
back and have another look, to a large degree. And the pulse criterion
prior to a finish time was incorporated nationwide--and it really removes the
wire-to-wire racing element that there used to be on the shorter
distances.
So I'd have to disagree here--the rules changed,
and the character of what we call LD also changed. I agree that it is
still more like endurance than is CTR--but it is still different.
