Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> Bingo. Endurance riding is a "big tent." The 50 and 100 have people with
>  many different goals riding. Some ride for mileage. Some ride to win.
> Some ride to pursue international goals.  Some ride to chase points. And
>  some ride for the shear joy of riding. That is the beauty and strength
> of endurance riding as defined by the AERC. There is room for each and
> every one of these people in the tent.
>
> Why should we exclude the riders that chose the 25 from our tent?
>
> Truman
Oh, criminently, Truman, THEY ARE INCLUDED NOW!  They have a whole
program, their miles are tracked, their awards are given out at the same
awards banquet (and are frequently the very same completion awards), etc.

Truman, you and a small handful of others are making mountains out of
molehills!  NOBODY IS KICKING THE LD RIDERS OUT OF THE TENT!

Bruce Weary's post was EXCELLENT, and his analogy is great.  (And why you
can't see it, Truman, is beyond me.)

Yes, Frank Solano's reply was eloquent, and while I agree with his
philosophy about how there are "endurance riders" doing LDs and some "just
plain riders" doing endurance rides, there is no way to sort the wheat
from the chaff that way.

Skyla Stewart hit the nail on the head--the minute we "lower the bar" and
call LD "endurance" we set ourselves up for the next lowering of the bar
when the 10-mile trail riders want to be included.

If I were an LD rider, Truman, I'd want to come unplug your keyboard.  The
way it is now, LD riders get a WHOLE lot of recognition, and all sorts of
incentives to ride.  If they get thrown in with everyone else, their
efforts toward any sort of year-end awards simply become lost among those
of folks who ride longer distances.  If LD miles were not tracked
separately, we would not be recognizing folks who do the most LD miles in
a year, or those who do "quality" LDs by earning BC awards.  The people
who currently strive for those things would simply be out in the cold.  If
anyone is dumping on the LD riders, it is YOU, Truman--by wanting to bury
their efforts in obscurity among the higher-mileage efforts of the riders
doing endurance distances.

And I agree 100% with Dot Wiggins--as a rider with both LD miles AND
endurance miles, even when the time comes that I have to ride more of the
former and less (or none) of the latter, I don't WANT my LD miles in the
same tally with my endurance miles!  My endurance miles are my endurance
miles, period!  My LD miles are (and will be) just that--LD miles.

And I will repeat (and agree with the other posters who have said the same
thing)--LD bashing is rare indeed.  When I came back into the sport as a
rider and had to start back with LD because of my own infirmities, NO ONE
laughed.  NO ONE belittled.  What they said was, "Hey, Heidi, sure is good
to see you up on a horse again!  Welcome back!"

Heidi


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They're athletes! This is a partnership between horse and rider - we don't
have any jockeys out there, just pals and partners. We'd allow a rider with
a broken foot, a sore back and a nasty cold to compete - but we would never
let a horse in a similiar condition hit the trail. 
~  Dr. Barney Flemming DVM

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