Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

The money is coming from a UAE based company 'Hydra Properties'. They  
don't have any direct interest in the sport  - they simply want  
exposure and publicity, and in the UAE if you sponsor Endurance, you  
are associating with the Sheikhs (exposure and publicity). I had a  
conversation with a Hydra marketing person who had just been hired  
and didn't know much about the sport of Endurance. I encouraged him  
to consider sponsoring more than just 'winning riders', especially in  
the young rider and ladies events, where there is even less of a  
'human-horse' relationship (they mostly ride horses given to them by  
the big stables who simply want their horses to win) and the spirit  
of the event is much more about glory and winning than about  
horsemanship.

I suggested sponsoring horsemanship or team awards instead of pouring  
all their sponsor money into a winners purse. I have no idea if my  
words made any difference, but I'd like to think so!  The fact they  
they are sponsoring new program growth (clinics and officials courses  
for countries that want to  get started) seems to be a reasonably  
acceptable way to spend the money that they want to spend. They still  
get their name recognition and association with the sport.  (a la  
Omega, Rolex, AllTech, etc)

Steph


On Mar 12, 2008, at 2:28 PM, rides2far@xxxxxxxx wrote:

> > > > the UAE are offering money to develop endurance racing all over  
> > > > the world, Cassandra crying from the battlements...
>
>
> My personal impression of the announcement was "Anybody ever heard  
> of "conflict of interest????"  I>>

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