Different milage buckets

[David LeBlanc <dleblanc@mindspring.com>]

At 02:12 PM 11/4/99 -0500, Maggie Mieske wrote:
>I think that's what the mileage awards are for...500, 1000, 2000, etc.  I
>think distance rider suits me fine (if we must have a label).  My current
>goal is to break 1000 miles (in endurance)...that'll take me awhile.  Then
>I'll be coveting that 2000 mile mark.  It's a matter of personal goals.  I
>don't think we need levels.  Milestones of achievement (notice how cleverly
>the word "mile" got put in there?) I can see.  

OK, here's what bugs me - 
==========
1.4.3 The AERC records mileage for members, but the mileage remains in the
limited Distance Program and is not transferrable to any other AERC program.
==========
I don't think this is right.  It bugs me because I think that even people
who go out and do 50's and 100's sometimes want to drop to a 25 now and
then because they want to give their horse a rest.  Why should they not
accumulate milage?  Then we've got a young horse, just been trained about a
year.  In January, he could barely keep one foot in front of the other on a
trail.  He's getting to be a good trail horse, and finished 2 25's this
year (once 11th!), and I think he'll work up to be a 50 mile horse, and
maybe even 100's.  I think (Jennifer agrees) that the best thing to do for
the horse is to do a lot of 25's this coming year, and a few 50's.  2001
we'll try and make it mostly 50's.  My goal is to keep this horse
competitive until he's 20 (now 6), and I think the way to do that is to
bring him along slowly and not burn him up young.  We're going to do what's
right for the horse, and to hell with milage, what everyone thinks, and
anything else, but still - why shouldn't we be accumulating milage (or to
be precise, why should the accumulated miles go in different buckets)?
Because of some arbitrary distinction?  I don't think all the regional
associations make this distinction.  I also think this distinction may
encourage some riders to do 50's before they or their horse is ready, and
that's a Bad Thing.

As I'm sure this all has been discussed at too great a length here, I'm
going to try and shut up about it now...

David the argumentative...

David LeBlanc
dleblanc@mindspring.com


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