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Glad you put that smiley face on your last sentence....

 

Seriously, this has nothing to do with how our country does or doesn't do at the WECs.  It has to do with what the WECs have become, and about horse welfare. 

 

I do hear what you are saying about the individuals--truly, I do.  But how better to take the emphasis OFF of medals and get it ONTO completing with a healthy horse than to encourage participation by individuals so that they can go home and help to build programs in their own countries? 

 

Competing at a world level is not something that one masters the first time out of the box, so to speak.  It takes some experience--not just as an individual but AS A COUNTRY to get riders to the level of being able to compete for individual medals.  And that is precisely why off-continent riders ride in continental championships in which they have no hope of earning medals--to gain EXPERIENCE, for themselves and for their countries.

 

Rome wasn't built in a day--and neither are international endurance programs.  Yes, I have a pretty good idea what sort of sacrifice goes into getting a horse-rider team to a WEC--granted, I've not ridden one, but I've worked on the ground side of it, and have been pretty closely associated with the blood, sweat, and tears that it takes to get there.  But getting there is only a new beginning--and the emphasis needs to be FIRST on how to COMPLETE, and only when that is mastered, on how to win. 

 

At the 1998 WEC in Dubai, Teddy Lancaster and I coined a phrase--"To finish first, first you have to finish."  You have to learn to walk before you try to run.  That's just how life is.

 

Heidi

Heidi wrote:

 

>>It's just as fair as any other sport that requires team participation--hockey, basketball, volleyball, relay races, etc. 

[Reply] But I have never considered any of the equestrian sports to be “team” sports.  Well, other than the horse-rider team, that is.  Showjumping, dressage, eventing all allow for team and individual medals.  Why would it be better for endurance to have only a team medal?  At the end of the day, the wealthier countries, fielding more riders, would always have the advantage, surely?

 

>>And since it is something that would be known going in, no one would be "denied" anything--if a rider wants to come and ride for the experience and the completion, so be it.

[Reply] If they knew that going in, yes, nobody would be “denied” anything.  I’m just not sure it’s a good way to get people to participate in the WORLD games.

 

 >>It isn't any different in terms of that sort of "fairness" than at continental championships, where riders from off-continent are not allowed to earn medals.  And yet, I know that when I chaired the OC for the Pan-Am in Bend in '97, we had riders from Denmark and Germany (and I think from another non-Pan-Am country or two) who cheerfully rode.  Had they been in the first three places, they would not have earned the medals--nor would they have earned a team medal had their team had one of the best three team times.  (And yes, Denmark fielded enough riders for a team.)  Is that "fair?"  Yes, because it is how the event is set up in the first place, so riders know the rules going in.

 

[Reply]  You’re quite right about that.  I guess I just see it differently because I live in a third world country and I know how hard it is, and how much is sacrificed, to get even ONE rider to the games.  And I know how much it would mean to us as a country, and to our sport, if that rider came home with a medal.

 

Maybe you Yanks are just so spoiled for medals that it no longer matters J

 

 

Tracey

 

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