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RE: [SPAM] Re: [RC] AERC Directions - 1 Day 100's - heidiAgain...you have to consider ALL of the regions. I lived in upstate New York for several years. At the time there wasn't an endurance ride in the state. I had two rides about 5 hours away, 1 about 6 hours and everything else was at least a 10 hour drive. I'm still in the same region as I was when I managed to get into the AERC Top 25. At that time, I did have the good fortune to have several close rides. But now, I'm on the remote edge of the region, I have two rides about 4 hours away, a handful 6 hours away, and the rest a lot further than that. My husband and I recently hauled up to BC to ride (not the furthest from us in our region, by ANY stretch)--it was a 15-hour drive, plus the time for a border check. (Yes, we took 2 days to drive.) It is STILL easier to ride to the points system on a given year than it is to get the time off of work and away from the ranch to go halfway across the country to a "National Championship" ride. And once again, why did AERC have to destroy one kind of competition to start another kind? Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks. Eliminating the points championship effectively cut off the preferred sort of competition for a segment of our membership. BTW, the way that the points system helps to encourage participation in 100s is that not only do you get the triple points, but for us po' workin' folks who can't take all that much time off, we can get twice the riding for our travel in ONE day. I agree you don't have to be first across the finish line to accumulate points, but if you aren't pretty high in the finish order you'll have to do more rides to catch up with those that do. I'm not talking about having a fancy rig. The simple economic fact is that the more rides you do and the further they are from home, the more it costs and the more time you are away from work...assuming one works. Again leaning towards those who are more financially independent will have a significant advantage over those that have to work for a living. That's true in all of our sport. But again, the average working guy has a better shot at getting to rides over the course of a year than he does of making it across the country the year he happens to have the top caliber horse and the ride is on the opposite coast. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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