ridecamp@endurance.net: Overkill of Multi-day Rides

Overkill of Multi-day Rides

Randy H Eiland (renegade12@juno.com)
Thu, 27 Feb 1997 17:32:41 EST

Ken Schleman expressed an opinion that with the advent of a Multi-day
ride every other week (it seems), the "mystique" of these unique
endurance rides is becoming lost. Ken e'mailed me the other day with a
question about my thoughts on these events and I said that I see them as
a specialty event for "special " folks who have a real appreciation of
our history and want to relive the experiences of the pioneers ,
outlaws, pony express riders, and renegades of our past. Others want to
test themselves and their horses, other entrants just want to live the
experience of riding for five days in the "out there".

In order, the oldest continuous multi-day rides in the country are Dave
Nicholson's PONY EXPRESS RIDES, Jim & Jackie Bumgardner's DEATH VALLEY
ENCOUNTER, my NEW MEXICO RENEGADE RIDE, and Crockett & Sharon Dumas'
OUTLAW TRAIL.
APPLEGATE LASSEN (Lud & Barbara McCrary) and SHORE TO SHORE (Wayne
Gustfield) are rebirths of old established multi-day rides; TIMBERON (me)
is in it's third year while Brad Patterson's ROCKY MTN RIDE will be
having its inaugural in August.

Do I think there are too many of these rides? Yes I do! Due to the
nature of Multi-day rides in reference to logistics, time, cost, etc.,
there is a limited pool of folks who can take the time and spend the
money to participate in them. The cost in dollars & time to put one of
these events on is enormous and it does not take much of a loss of
entries to doom a multi-day ride to financial loss. Several years ago
Shore to Shore was discontinued due to financial loss and I think several
of our current multi day rides are going to suffer because far too many
of these rides have been sanctioned in the short window of time between
June and August. These rides must have AERC Board approval to be
sanctioned and I have never turned one down because I believe in the free
market approach, but I do have doubts that all will be able to survive.

It is my belief that the Multi-Days with the best management, exploring
the most historic trails, nurtured and protected by those who truly love
endurance, the people and the horses, will be the rides that survive.

Randy Renegade Eiland


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