Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

k s swigart wrote:
> In fact, one of the reasons I didn't think it appropriate to get rid of
> that rule is that it is now legal, in an AERC ride, to have one rider
> enter two horses, pony one, ride the other, and switch off between them.
AND get TWO completions and mileage for both!  Boy - neither Trilby or 
Les thought of THAT :)  Wait why stop at 2?  Why not enter 3 or 4 
horses, ride one at a time and pony the others and get completions and 
mileage for them all?  Can't you see it!  A new division (AERC loves to 
add divisions).  Call it the Chariot Division.  Then subdivide it into 
2,3 and 4 horses.  That's THREE divisions... WHEE!!!  It doesn't matter 
that we all "know" that an entry has to have one horse and one rider. 
The bottom line is that there is no such restriction in the rules.  And 
taking a page from show competitions, riders enter and ride multiple 
horses all the time.

Look at rule 6.  There isn't one subsection listed that couldn't be met 
by one rider entering two or more horses and completing the distance 
with them all.  And if all of a rider's horses fulfilled all the 
requirements listed in rule 6, plus any additional rules imposed by the 
RM, then how could an RM refuse to award them all completions and 
mileage?  They could try but when the rider protested, what basis could 
the RM use to defend his/her refusal to grant the completions?  No rule 
supports that decision.  If an RM specified on the entry form that every 
horse that starts the ride must have its own, unique rider, ie, no 
riderless horses, or even made such an announcement at the ride meeting 
(along with the rule in writing), then that would be a valid rule.  But 
if the RM failed to announce such a rule in advance, (s)he couldn't just 
make up such a rule at the starting line.  Special ride rules, except in 
the case of an emergency,  must be "made available to them [competitors] 
in written form at a preride meeting", if not sooner.

And what if they Top Ten?  If you have to give a *completion* to each 
horse that is present at the start of the ride, properly entered, etc, 
wouldn't you have to give them all the other awards that they qualify 
for?  1st place, BC, Top Ten?  And wouldn't the rider qualify for Weight 
Division points on all the horses that completed?  Oh, wait.  Maybe not. 
 They'd be in the Chariot Division.  Probably couldn't qualify for 
awards in multiple divisions on the same ride :)

What a delicious nightmare!


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