$$--How Big is Big?

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

Linda B. Merims lbm@ici.net

What big money, *besides* the UAE, exists in the international
endurance community?

I understand that there are few purses in the world as
deep as the Maktoums of the UAE, but stepping down one or
two or three orders of magnitude from:

  x,000,000,000  billions  (the shayks of the Persian Gulf)
    x00,000,000  hundreds of millions
     x0,000,000  tens of millions
      x,000,000  millions

Who competes, in the US and the world at large, whose bankroll
falls into these lesser categories?  If not actually
competes, which monied entities (like Cosequin) seek to
exercise influence within the Endurance community?

I know this sounds like a horrifically crass question, but,
to quote Deep Throat:  follow the money.

For example, within the Morgan breed, the greatest influence
is wielded by none other than Herbert Kohler--the same
Kohler whose name is affixed to your bathroom sink.  To
his credit, I don't see Kohler *overtly* seeking to acquire
this influence.  While he may, I don't see him doing it.
Rather, the influence seems to come more from people seeking
to *appear* to be traveling in his circle.  That is, it
is an influence whose reality is created by would-be syncophants.


Linda B. Merims
Incredibly Small Potatoes
lbm@ici.net
Massachusetts, USA