Re: Sanctioniong of AERC Rides

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

According to my reading of the rules, there is nothing that allows for
sanctioning by other organizations.  So indeed, a CTR or Ride n Tie, or
eTI poker ride, of 49 mile or less distance would be in contravention of
the old rule 1.4 which states "Limited Distance Rides my be offered but
must be sanctioned "INTO THE AERC LIMITED DISTANCE PROGRAM ...AND MUST BE 
REGULATED BY THE AERC RULES AND REGULATIONS."

The only way to circumvent it would be for the ride to be between 49 and
50 miles...the only distance that isn't covered by the By-Laws as they now
read.  And you can't sanction any of these types of ride as AERC LD rides
because:

CTR:  Contravenes rule 5.1 "There may be no minimum tiem for completion.

R&T:  Contravenes Section 2 of the By-Laws "LD Riding is defined as an
athletic even in which the smae equine and RIDER cover a specified
course...."

Poker Rides:  Presumably will offer awards in contravention of the new
"standardization of awards" since winning a poker hand can hardly be
described as "the same BC evaluation as for the endurance rides."

Interestingly enough, this requirement doesn't exist for rides that are 50
miles or more, so you can have a 50 mile ride 'n' tie in conjunction with
your endurance ride, but you can't have a 35 mile one.

It will be interesing to see whether more rides other than those in Canada
decide that AERC sanctioning is too expensive and not worth the bother and
just decide to santion through their regional organizations instead. It
would be a question of whether you want to make everybody at your ride pay
the AERC so some of the riders can participate in the AERC's national
awards program.

kat
Orange County, Calif.