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[RC] Weight Divisions - Joe LongWith the AERC Convention coming up, I believe it's time for the AERC to consider making changes to the Weight Divisions.First, some history. For the first ten years or so the AERC had no weight divisions. As weight carried is a factor (one of many) in a horse's performance, we adopted weight divisions (within the overall placings) as a way of recognizing performance among similar amounts of weight carried. At first there were only two divisions, Lightweight and Heavyweight. Then we increased to three divisions, Lightweight, Middleweight, and Heavyweight. AIR this structure had a span of 40 pounds between the LW-MW and MW-HW boundaries, and most riders in LW were within 40 pounds of the LW-MW boundary and most riders in HW were within 40 pounds of the MW-HW boundary. But rider weights follow a classic "bell-shaped curve" and there were a few riders at the extremes that were more than 40 pounds from a boundary. A few of the heaviest riders felt they were still disadvantaged with the MW-HW boundary with three divisions, but we felt it wasn't practical to raise that boundary because the heavyweights already were fewer then half as many as the other divisions -- so they lobbied to increase to four divisions, which is what we have today. The heavyweight division is still small, at most AERC rides you have only a few, sometimes only one Heavyweight riding. (It's pretty easy to win First Place when you are the only rider.) I believe we went too far to accommodate a handful of riders. Having so many divisions has fractured us, and led to awards proliferation. The more awards and more divisions you have, the less meaningful they become. I believe it is time to reduce the number of weight divisions. Personally, I'd like to go back to two (or none at all), but I believe most members would prefer three. To be clear on where I'm coming from, I personally don't really care about my weight division placing. I qualify for Middleweight but I've been riding in the Lightweight Division (so that I never have to worry about "making weight"). I'd rather finish 2nd overall and 2nd Lightweight than 3rd overall and 1st Lightweight. If we had five, or ten, weight divisions it wouldn't make any difference in how I ride. I'm suggesting changing to three divisions because I believe that makes more sense for the AERC and for those who do like to compete in a weight division. Under our current rules, the Lightweight and Middleweight Divisions only span 25 pounds, while some Featherweight riders are 40 pounds or more lighter than the heaviest riders in their division. Percentagewise, Featherweight has an even larger span than the others at 25% and more. I suggest that we change to three weight divisions, as follows: Lightweight: 0 - 160 pounds with tack Middleweight: 161-200 pounds with tack Heavyweight: 201 pounds and above with tack This is only dropping the Heavyweight boundary by ten pounds, which surely isn't going to have a significant impact on anyone's ability to win his Division. They will still have the fewest riders, but will have more than they have now. (Personally, it would put me near the top of the Middleweight Division.) I'm certainly open to suggestions regarding the weight boundaries. I hope to get some discussion going on this idea before the Convention, and have some discussion of weight divisions at the Membership Meeting.
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