Re: RC: USET PAC News Release

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated Mon, 27 Aug 2001  4:07:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Wrecksduke@aol.com writes:


> Excuse me for the stupid questions......  
>   
> Heather was listed as part of the Pacific South team..... yet she is from San   
> Jose. I consider that northern California.  

For International, the USA is divided into zones along the time zone boundaries--it has nothing to do with AERC regions.  The former Pacific zone had more riders than any of the other zones, so it was eventually divided into Pacific North (WA, OR, northern CA and northern NV) and Pacific South (southern CA and southern NV).  I think the dividing line is around Sacramento.  (I guess what we all "consider" to be northern or southern depends on where we live--being from the NW, I consider anything south of Sacto to be "southern"...)  So PacSouth includes a big chunk of AERC's West Region, as well as its Pacific South Region. (And without looking at a map, it seems to me that part of PS is in the Mountain zone as well?  I know the PacNorth zone includes most of the NW region and part of the W region, but to make it even more interesting, areas of AERC's NW region are in the Mountain zone as well, and other areas are in Canada and are part of Canada West for FEI purposes, so we oft!
en have friends from the NW comp
eting on three different squads at PAC's.)  
  
> How does one get on the PAC teams?

By nominating.  One has to be a member of AERC International and AHSA (since AHSA is the "official" international rep organization for FEI).  There are a limited number of spots on each zone's squad, and the riders are chosen from among those who nominate based on their ride records as well as on how the horses are currently doing (ie you can have a fabulous record, but if your horse is having problems in a given year, you may not get picked).
    
> How come there are no riders from southern California?.... that's the Pacific   
> South Region. 

Depends entirely on who nominated from the ZONE (not the AERC region) and what their ride records were.

Are   
> their politics involved?   

I suppose you can always claim "politics" when humans are involved in the selection process, but in most cases the selectors are primarily concerned about fielding the best possible squads, and do their best to choose horse/rider teams accordingly.

Heidi