Re: [RC] [Endurance Tracks] France requests change to 2008->2009 - Richard ALLEN
On 22 Feb 2009, at 18:01, Chrystal Woodhouse wrote:
one thing that stuck ?with me from the letter to FEI from France was that "most of the endurance riders were professionals" ,
Hi,
Most French riders *aren't* professionals. "Most", here, is a mistranslation, I think, for "many". The situation is further confused because you can have a "professional" licence - without being, in any meaningful way, a professional. Of about 7,000 riders there are around 200 who hold these licences. North of the Loire river (1/3rd of the country) I can't think, offhand, of 20 riders who would be described as 'professional endurance riders/trainers', and most of them combine endurance with running equestrian centres, breeding, ?and so forth.
The fact that some French endurance rules are similar in some respects to FEI regs should not be taken to mean that French endurance is run under the auspices of the FEI. It just isn't. And at any ride you go to - any non-FEI ride, i.e. most of them - you'll find a vast majority of people who just want to have an enjoyable day doing the best they can with their horse.
It's not like I, or Leonard, haven't tried to explain this to y'all many times before. But no, the same old straw man keeps getting put up so you can knock him down again. If you actually came to a European endurance ride you'd find the whole experience far more familiar than you think. ?By far the highest proportion of entries at any given local ride comes from the Club members, who have no aspirations to race. You can't move?for turtles. It's like the Galapagos Islands, only with worse weather and more Frenchmen.
