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This is why I really think that it's time to start calling a spade a bloody shovel and start talking about FEI endurance racing and grassroots/national/local endurance riding. Sure people will race somewhat at an endurance ride, but the entire emphasis isn't on racing in a professional flat track sense. Words actually do wield power and in this case, it is the power to separate sports.

Living in one of those underdeveloped countries, you can have all the classes available in the world, but if you have set up the expectation that endurance racing is a way of making money like in flat track racing, then the training will only go for cronies and it will still be a closed and corrupt shop. I speak here from experience. 

I'm sure Hydra is doing all of this out of the goodness of its corporate heart, and I'm kind of happy to  have advance notice of the next layer of insanity to be perpetrated by the FEI....not that I will have anything to do with them, but it's always good to know why. LOL

Maryanne

On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 6:20 PM, Steph Teeter <stephteeter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Apr 23, 2008, at 9:40 AM, Beth Walker wrote:

My concern is that, if FEI-level endurance continues to go in this direction, we will essentially have two entirely different sports that go by the same name.

>>

In the UAE it is very much like long distance flat racing in every respect...and tho their races are run by the same 'rules' it definitely feels like an entirely different sport.

In most of the rest of the world it is not very different from AERC Endurance.   And much of the rest of the world is also concerned about protecting the original sport - you folks that are speaking out are voicing concerns that many others have as well.

But (IMO) FEI is not trying to change our sport, they are trying to create a new, separate, version of the sport, acceptable as an Olympic, or at the least spectator/sponsor friendly, venue. They are not specifically trying to fiddle with anything that we are doing in the non-FEI world.  But whereas we (USA) are predominantly non-FEI and any FEI changes won't really affect us, much of the 'rest of the world' runs their events as FEI events. It will be interesting to see if other countries continue to run predominantly FEI rides if the rules of the FEI sport actually change.

And - it will be interesting to see how the new FEI rules proposals resolve, this might signal the beginning of the branching of the two sports (Endurance Riding and Endurance Racing for want of a better differentiation).

At any rate, our job (Endurance.Net) is to keep you informed!

Steph


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Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
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