Limited Distance Program

At the risk of being flamed off of ridecamp I feel a need to express myself on the state of AERC's Limited Distance program. When I rode my first ride in the early 1980's I rode the 25 mile training ride. My mentors told me in no uncertain terms that this distance was only for preparing for a 50 mile endurance ride, and that racing in a 25 mile training ride was a good way to ruin my horse. I was told that when I could finish a 25 mile ride in less that 3 hours, with a horse that passed the final vet check in good shape, it was time for me to move up to 50 miles. It took three 25 mile rides along with six months of conditioning to meet that goal with the Appendix QH I was riding at the time.

I am troubled with the decision to give regional and national awards to the Limited Distance division. If someone wants to be a career LD rider then that is fine but AERC, IMO, is making a mistake with these additional awards regardless of who is paying for these awards. AERC stands for the American Endurance Ride Conference so if LD is to achieve national award status perhaps the definition of an endurance ride needs to be redefined. In watching the evolution of the LD program I hope that in 10 years we are not giving regional and national awards for 15 to 20 mile rides. I am sorry if I have offended any LD riders out there. You are important to the sport but don't sell yourself short by not taking the step up to endurance riding. And if you have physical limitations that prevent you from riding farther than 25 miles then stay at that distance and AERC will keep track of your mileage accomplishments. My best friend was injured in a car accident many years ago and probably will never be able to ride farther than 25 miles a day. We have talked about the LD program and she is happy to have her LD mileage tracked and is appalled that regional and national championships may be given in LD. By the way she has paid her AERC membership for the past several years even though she hasn't ridden a sanctioned ride in over 10 years.

On a lighter note, I just finished 2 days of the Silver State ride and would like to thank Claire and Peggie for their great ride management. I wore through 2 easy boots on the second day and had to have Jim Bumgardner help cut one of them off my horse's hoof at the end of the ride. Karen Chaton demonstrated carbo loading Dreamweaver while mounted just before the first water stop on the first day. Cool!

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