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[RC] Mongol Derby and the sport of endurance - k s swigart


Jonni said:


?Here is the issue that I see, that CAN have an
?effect on our endurance riding, and AERC. This
?ride is getting some world wide attention,

?
Not much.? The first I heard of it was here. And unless a bunch of people here 
start firing off letters to god and everybody (like the President of the 
US...and, god forbid, PETA although even the President of the US and virtually 
everybody else recognizes that those guys are a bunch of crack pot lunatics 
when they start castigating a guy for swatting a fly), then here is likely to 
be pretty much the only place anybody hears about it.
?

?billed with the word ENDURANCE often attached to it.

?
Actually, by the promoters it is being billed mostly as an "adventure" with 
endurance being but a small part of it, and not part of it at all for the 
horses.? And they are making a point of it not being a test of the endurance of 
horses or, in fact,?a test of anything for the horses.
?

?When they start killing horses (not "if", but WHEN)
?and it continues to be called an endurance race, what
?will Joe Q Public think when they here an endurance
?ride is taking place near them? 

IF (notice I don't say "when") some of the horses die during the event, John Q 
Public will probably not even hear of it, and if he does, he probably won't 
care very much.? There certainly was a great deal more publicity associated 
with the Great Santa Fe Horse Race (multiple airing on RFD TV, etc.) and I was 
asked more about that from my non-horsey friends than I suspect anybody ever 
will about this. If I remember correctly,?two horses died at that event caused 
by irresponsible riders galloping their horses out in front of a car, which got 
a small amount of publickty at the time but disappeared off the radar of John Q 
Public faster than you can say Michael Jackson (I use this reference to 
demonstrate just how fickle John Q Public is when it comes to the longevity of 
sensationalism and that there are things that he cares about a great deal more 
than a couple of ponies a half a world away IF he even hears about it--which he 
probably won't).

Rest assured that this event bears virtually no resemblence to any AERC 
sanctioned endurance ride, and even if half the horses die at this event (which 
they won't) the average Joe isn't going to care any more about an endurance 
ride taking place near them than they do already, which is hardly at all.

Endurance isn't going to be an Olympic sport (no matter what the Long Riders 
say on their website in an attempt to get everybody up in arms), and that isn't 
going to change no matter what a handful of people do in the wilds of Mongolia 
do.

kat
Orange County, Calif.
:)

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