Re: Unofficial WEG Team

[flemmerl@rcbhsc.wvu.edu (Flemmer, Linda)]

Carlos Crespo wrote:

> Endurance is not a team sport where each member has to learn to
>   play with all the others in order to be successful, as you would in
>   basketball, etc. It is an individual sport where , at the end, you add-up
>   the individual performance of each rider. There is really very little
>   one rider can do to help another rider succeed.
>
The operative phrase is "ENDURANCE is not a team sport..."  FEI
endurance riding is a whole 'nuther ball of wax!

I have to say that I can think of ways that a team member may help
another to finish well.  One team member may agree to possibly
"sacrifice" their standings or use a VERY good horse to speed up a ride
for foreign competitors in the hopes that the others' horses will tire &
quit near the end.  At that point, another US team horse & rider that
are fresher may then have the opportunity to pass at that point.

This does NOT come from my experience as a world class endurance
competitor...  (HA! as if anyone might suspect that!)  This strategy was
used in the long distance running I did for my high school, eons ago!
I'm sure that there are other examples that folks can think of.

As endurance riders, we have a mind set of the "team" being the horse &
rider.  We need to think about the FEI "team" being all six of the
riders and the crew that we send.  The riders can and MUST interact with
each other and with the foreign teams to take advantage of their
position in the race & the other teams' weak points.  That is where good
team management by the "crew" is essential.

I must admit that I have not looked into the team selection process
since I have never had plans to compete at that level.  I would like to
see AERC International publish the results of theongoing observations at
demonstration rides as they select a team.  If nothing else, it would
bring these great competitors' efforts into the limelight, where (IMHO)
it belongs.

Linda Flemmer