The National Championship

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

k s swigart katswig@earthlink.net
I have the best idea yet.  Since endurance is not the same thing
to all people, and since endurance horses from all over the
country compete in endurance in different ways, NOBODY is ever
going to agree on what it means to be "THE NATIONAL CHAMPION."

So let's not have one.

Let's not kid ourselves that there is ANY format that anyboody
could possibly devise that would pick THE  BEST endurance horse
for the year.

The fact of the matter is, there is no such thing as a national
champion endurance horse and the title should not be bestowed on
anybody.

There are many sports (in fact many horse sports) that do not
crown "national champions."  What is the obsession with having
one at all.  If you have one, then you will have people who
complain that whatever format is chosen does not select the
true champion.

But it can't, because, quite frankly, there isn't one.

Personally, I like the awards that we already have, and find
pursuing them (over the course of the year) meaningful.  I also
liked the idea of the AERC Classic (and it really is too bad
about the loss of the ROC, but I would say that the Cosequin
Challenge may take up where that left off...especially if they
were to move it around the country the way the ROC was) and
was sorry to see it stopped after so short of a time.

And personally, the only award I am interested in winning (and
I haven't even come close yet) is the National 100 mile award--
but that is just me.

Let's have lots of awards that recognize all kinds of excellence
in endurance both over the life-time and during the course of
a year...and in just one ride (nobody denies that winning Tevis
or the OD....just one ride of the year, isn't a major accomplish-
ment) and not deceive ourselves into believing that we could
in any "fair" way crown a single (or 10, which is what the AERC
tried to do this year with just one event--4 weight divisions
and juniors in two different distances) national champion.

Or we could do it like they do in Thoroughbred Horse Racing
(which has faced the same problem in even less dramatic form--
because they don't have the disparity of distances and disparity
of racing conditions that endurance does)...and vote on it.
But even then, they just call them Eclipse Awards.  And the big
winner is not National Champion, but rather Horse of the Year.

Points standings they call "leading money winners." :)

So if you want my vote...get ride of the title "National
Champion" all together--'cuz you'll never get everybody to
agree on what it takes to choose a champion endurance horse.

kat
Orange County, Calif.




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