Kristen: Everyone puts a different value on different things.
Although I only have our local ride to use as an example....we charged $80 for
the LD and $90 for the 50. We haven't raised our prices in quite some time
and I think it may be necessary to up them at least a few dollars. I think
our manager figured that the break even for us this year would be about
70-75 riders.
At our ride you got:
Use of a beautiful base camp that we rented from a local ranch
Porta Potties at base camp complete with sinks and a potty at one of
the vet checks.
Horse Feed and Horse and People water at the vet checks
Water sources throughout the ride
Continental breakfast the morning of the ride
Awards dinner
Buckle or Wine glasses to all that completed
Riders packets that were full of samples and advertisements
Lots of cool awards (including a little gold nugget for the top ten in the
50)
Three vets (and when vets cost $400+ each those expenses add up
quickly)
Use of the forest service (which we have to pay permit fees for)
AERC sanctioning (which we have to pay fees for, plus fees for each
rider)
Insurance costs (which luckily AERC provided this year)
California Ag department drug fees paid for each rider
Folks to transport your vet check crew bags
Horse Ambulance Trailer and Crew
Volunteer workers that we had to feed, breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Plus all the hours it takes in administration, trail marking, awards
purchasing, food prep, marketing ect.
I am sure there are more things that I am forgetting but this all equaled a
great time had by all riders, which I think is worth the price charged.
What value do you get for fees that high?? I am not
questioning it, just curious. There is a wide disparity of costs vs. benefits
at rides and I am curious what you get for almost double what LD fees are in
CT.
