[RC] National Championship - Ridecamp GuestPlease Reply to: kim kimfue@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== At this point I am not sure any considers our National Championship even close to the ROC. I am not sure if that is the purpose of the National Championship as proposed and laid out now. As you mention in your post, you would like to see stricter qualifications. I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately, right now with qualifications as they are, they are certainly far too inclusive to be considered a competition between the best in the sport. For the 100 mile division, horses can qualify without even riding a 100 previous to the National Championship? It doesn't make sense to me that a horse that has never completed a 100 mile ride could qualify for the 100 mile division in a National Championship. Just because a horse has 1000 miles in 50 mile rides doesn't mean he should be qualified for the 100 mile division of what is supposed to be a competition between the best. Perhaps with stricter qualification requirements for the National Championship more riders would feel that it is an elite or prestigous competition. I don't know how to tweak the qualifications to appeal to all in AERC but I definitely would insist that to qualify in the 100 mile division of the NC that the horse/rider team should have at least completed a 100 mile ride or perhaps more then one 100 mile ride. It's nice to be so inclusive but you lose the meaning of championship when just about everyone is qualified. Kim Fuess AERC #6648 I had some thoughts on this. First, the AERC NC is *supposed* to be the best of the best of our sport... kind of like another version of the old ROC format (as an aside I'd like to see the qualifications for our NC be a lot stiffer... make it mean something ... something to earn, like qualifying for the ROC). Thus, you would think that the FEI type horse are exactly those who would also be at the NC anyways. ie, there wouldn't be any "FEI hopefulls who couldn't qualify for the NC". Perhaps some who didn't qualify *this* year, but that's why there is a next year. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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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