Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

The ultimate conundrum - "to finish is to win" vs. "winning is not 
everything - it's the only thing." The WEC is not an AERC ride, it is a 
FEI ride and more importantly a race. All horses have to prove they can 
do a 100 miles at speed - hence the need for a COC - to be eligible to 
participate. The FEI championship rides are about winning - not 
finishing. The WEC is not endurance AERC style - it is a race where the 
fastest wins. It is an event that some countries have become very good 
at preparing for.

It just may be the riders from the US were unwilling to push their 
horses to the point necessary to win because as you say they wanted them 
to be around for awhile and didn't want to accept the risk. This is 
noble - but on the other hand will not produce a metal.

So the dilima whose horns we AERC members find ourselves between is the 
following: Do we support selecting and sending a team that embodies the 
best of the AERC - that when all is said and done it is the welfare of 
the horse that is the most important - that probably doesn't have much a 
chance because they won't push envelope to the breaking point or do we 
support sending a team that will ride on the edge, ride to win with the 
potential result of sending one season wonders?

Truman

oddfarm wrote:

> Well, I am real darn confused.
> How many people want to hang a rider for riding too fast and hurting 
> their horse when riding here at home? And yet here I am reading that 
> in the big leagues, they can't win if they don't ride their own ride! 
> They will all be held back by the slowest rider or the faster ones 
> will run the slower ones into the ground. And at this level these 
> people should be RACING, no matter what!!
> What happened to "To Finish is to Win"?



--

“Many people consider the things government does for them to be social 
progress but they regard the things government does for others as 
socialism.” Earl Warren



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