Re: INPUT! National Championship

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/19/99 3:45:46 PM Pacific Standard Time,
guest@endurance.net writes:

<< Two years ago everyone must have been
 dreaming the same dreams..A Mega Ride
 to be the equal of the ROC. My husband 
 and I sat down and figured out the
 same exact rotating national ride,but
 with 2 MAJOR differences. >>

No, not everyone dreams those dreams.  A great many of us still dream about
endurance that means taking care of your horse for an entire season, keeping
him sound, keeping him going, and accumulating points for the entire year.  We
used to have a Champion like that.  But folks got the idea that somehow they
had to destroy that sort of Championship, which meant so much to so many of
us, in order to institute different sorts of competition.  Sad, as many of us
have curtailed our riding since then as we feel AERC does not offer us a
competition that is meaningful to us.  We certainly do not feel that an
overall points Champion would preclude AERC from having Champions in other
sorts of formats; quite the contrary, the different goals are one of the
things that stimulates our sport, in my opinion.  To have scrapped the points
Championship to start other forms of competition makes about as much sense as
if our childless family that campaigns stallions felt that the family award
program had to be scrapped to highlight Jim Jones placement, or if families
with children felt they had to kill off the Jim Jones award to find meaning in
their placement in family competition.  All of this new hoopla over a single
championship ride may be fascinating to some, and I wish you all well, but it
does not inspire me to compete at all.  Many of us still mourn the passing of
the sort of competition that WE enjoyed, and hope that AERC will once again
hear our voices and give us back the format that was so meaningful to us.

Heidi Smith, DVM--Sagehill Arabians (Oregon)