Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Title: RE: [RC] [Endurance Tracks] France requests change to 2008->2009

NO!!!! not at all
- national rides are run under national federation regulations. we all have longer presence on endurance than FEI. Before FEI, european international rides were ELDRIC rides, not FEI
- rider 120km and upper are mostly run under FEI sanctioning, but not all of them. there were in France (also in Spain for example) many rides 120km and upper not sanctioned by FEI
- only a percentage of the riders are highly competitive; many still do for fun and accomplishment of bringing a horse in good state to the upper level, would that be 120 or 160km. Finishing Florac in the back of the pack is still a big achievement for many many riders

- what you write in your last paragraph will most probably happen in France, because people are really upset with the set of rules and the additional costs to do endurance. In Belgium and other countries, I don't know

- I think you guys in the other side of the ocean have a wrong perceptiion of the way we ride endurance. we are not that much different. Yes we are different maybe in the way we consider horses, I mean, except maybe with UK which is a bit like you (anglo saxon mentality :-)   that's another debate :-)

Leonard, Belgium


-----Original Message-----
From: Diane Trefethen [mailto:tref@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sun 22/02/2009 16:49
To: LIESENS Leonard (COMM)
Cc: Ridecamp
Subject: Re: [RC] [Endurance Tracks] France requests change to 2008->2009

Hi Leonard,

The two most vivid impressions I have of Endurance on the European
continent, and please correct me if I am in error, are that a) it is all
run under the auspices of FEI using their rules and their standards and
b) the vast majority of riders are trying finish high in their races,
climb the ladder of International Competition, garner COCs and hopefully
represent their countries at the WEC.  While that has been a successful
formula so far, the good news for France and Belgium and anyone else
that might be disenchanted with FEI's "I will tell you how to do
endurance" attitude (even if they don't really know as much as they like
to think they do) is that you have a different model you can follow.
It's called AERC.  While many of our riders want to "Top Ten", for the
most part, AERC riders compete for the enjoyment of seeing new places
and seeing how well they and their horses can "go the distance", "well"
meaning healthily and happily, not necessarily fast.  Again, it is my
impression that FEI Endurance is structured to not only promote speed
but to actually discourage a slower pace.  Here, that's not true and the
number of people in AERC who aspire to international competition is
probably under 100 amongst a membership of 6900, less than 1.5%.

So if you and other riders are tired of everything in your sport being
slanted towards hitting it, hitting it, hitting it and you'd like to be
able to ride at the pace most suitable for you and your horses, consider
forming national or multi-national associations modeled after AERC where
the focus is on people and horses doing what they like, *just for the
sake of doing it*, with NO pressure to prove themselves other than the
pressure which they put on themselves.  This would allow ride fees to be
reduced (no FEI taking its cut) which might encourage more people to try
the sport and maybe get hooked.

Then the next thing you have to do is introduce the Turtle Award :)

Regards, Diane