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Re: [RC] LD/Endurance - Joe LongOn Sat, 15 May 2004 23:31:14 -0700, "David LeBlanc" <dleblanc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Joe Long said: An endurance ride is defined by its length, and that definition is 50 miles or more in one day. But this is somewhat a circular argument. Somewhat like how sometimes we get a bug reported in software and the developer says that it was "by design". Perhaps so, and maybe the design was even correct at the time, but it may not be the best design now. Not really. We are talking here about a specific definition, in the Bylaws of an organization founded for the very purpose of defining and keeping records of a specific kind of distance-riding equine event. So, no, no one who has not ridden an endurance ride ... a ride of 50 miles or more in one day .. is a true "endurance" rider. Language changes, and trying to fight that is tilting at windmills. For example, I'm a hacker. I'm a hacker in the recent sense of the word as being someone who programs computers and someone who pokes at computers to see how they work. There's a much older meaning - someone who crudely makes furniture, and I'm not that. Unfortunately, the press has turned "hacker" into someone who is a computer criminal and I'm not that, either. I can correct people all I want, but if I'm sitting next to someone on the plane and they ask what I do, if I tell them I'm a hacker, they get worried. I think that to many people, "endurance riders" are all of us and maintaining the distinction will be about as effective as my trying to claim that I'm a hacker, but not a computer criminal. Language changes, and being in the computer field myself I'm familiar with the evolution of the word "hacker." However, that is not a word that ever had a specific, written definition, or an organization defining it. The meaning of the term "marathon" hasn't changed in the last 100 years and isn't likely to change in the next 100 years, and is much closer to the term "endurance ride" than "hacker." But they are not an endurance rider until they successfully complete an endurance ride. That's the way it is. We've discussed this before. I don't think doing one 50 is a sufficient accomplishment for a title change. It just isn't that hard, or that big a deal. If we wanted to have rankings like novice, master and grandmaster and then made these ranks based on say mileage - maybe to graduate from novice, you need > 250 miles - then that would be worthy of making a distinction. I worked very hard for several years, then got to add a few letters after my name, worked harder for longer and now get to add more letters. That's an accomplishment worthy of a title change. It isn't a matter of making anything easier. It's a matter of either making distinctions over something that matters (doing it right), or not at all. I have over 12,000 endurance miles, over 3,000 in 100 mile rides, and I don't mind a bit calling someone who finishes his first 50 an "endurance rider" and welcoming him into the fold. There are, sure, further distinctions beyond that ... but "endurance rider" means, simply, someone who has completed an endurance ride. No amount of trying to make becoming an endurance rider easier by lowering the definition to a shorter distance will change that. Actually, it can happen just by people commonly using the term to describe anyone doing rides sanctioned by an endurance body. You'll argue they're incorrect, just like I can argue that I'm really a hacker in the "true" meaning of the word (conveniently ignoring the original meaning of a furniture maker), and others will dismiss us as archaic (in the language sense). People can and do use words to mean whatever they want them to mean. That does not mean we should just give up on having generally agreed-upon definitions, especially in a case like this where a sanctioning body defines (in writing) a specific kind of event. Making a worthwhile challenge easier so that more people can or will "achieve" it doesn't actually allow more people to achieve anything, it just cheapens the meaning for those who actually prepare and do it. Do you really think one 50 is a worthwhile challenge? I don't. I believe that you don't get to a true test of the endurance horse until you go somewhere in the general vicinity of 60 to 75 miles (depending on weather and terrain), not 50. However, 50 miles is the AERC definition of an endurance ride and I accept that. I think getting to 1000 miles is a worthwhile challenge. 5000 miles is really impressive. A 3000 mile horse is really something. Not everyone can manage that. All of those are worthwhile challenges, and all are recognized in their own way by the AERC: medallions for horses, patches for people. Managing to complete one 50 is a pretty low bar. I'd even go as far as to say that someone with 1000 LD miles and zero miles 50 and greater probably knows more and deserves more respect than someone that did one 50 and hasn't done anything else. Nevertheless, one of them has completed an endurance ride and the other has not. Why do you object to having a word that accounts for that? "Endurance rider" works fine. I know there is a trend today to no longer reward excellence, or have challenges with high standards, because it hurts the "self-esteem" of those who can't or won't do what is necessary to achieve them. I hope we can keep that from happening to endurance rides. IMHO, if we're going to do that, then we ought not make distinctions that don't effectively show a significant level of achievement, and we ought to set up a system to recognize those with a real level of achievement. Many other sports have several classes within the ranks and a well-organized way of distinguishing between them. We don't really have such a system. I think we should either have a really thoroughly laid out, logical system that recognizes significant achievements, or not bother. My mother must have said 10,000 times, "If it isn't worth doing well, then it isn't worth doing at all." Drove me nuts, but she was right. We may wish to do some of those things. Doing so will not require diluting the definition of an endurance ride. -- Joe Long jlong@xxxxxxxx http://www.rnbw.com ============================================================ REAL endurance is reading the LD vs. Endurance thread/debate every 3 months!!! ~ Heidi Sowards ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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