Lisa made some very salient (hee hee) comments in her mail, and has picked up on something I hinted at in my earlier email, and nobody seemed to notice. That showjumper I spoke about? The millionaire? He didn't go out to win for the purse. He didn't need it. Think Howard's "Sultans of Swing" need the purse? No, they don't.
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I don't think I've ever stated they need the money. My problem with them is they use their money to control what goes on in FEI endurance. And, to top it all off, they sponsor and even ride for the same money they are providing, and my guess is it will be them who gets their own million dollar award, which really means the money doesn't go to any other riders but themselves. The money is a ruse, a joke, because it goes back to the sponsor from where it came. How does that happen you ask? Because they control the rules of the game. This is not a level playing field. Read some of Maryanne's posts about all this; she sees it first hand and I don't think anyone would accuse her of being bias.
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Most wealthy participants in any sport probably throw more money INTO a sport than they take out of it. That's why we call them "patrons". Why on earth should we reject their patronage out of hand. The points made about integrity would come into play here : keep the rules clean and the officials fair, and the sport shouldn't suffer.
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The reason one needs a sponsor or a patron to do FEI endurance is because they have quadrupled your expenses, for entry fee alone, when compared to an AERC ride. They've made it too expensive and difficult to compete in (most of the rides are overseas) unless you have someone to foot the bill. For top riders, that's all perfectly fine, and you bet I'll root for the American (and Aussie) teams. But, if all rides were like that, you will make it only a rich person's sport; folks like me would drop out because of the costs involved, along with the added bullshit. My point is AERC is what I enjoy and, quite frankly, needs no improvement. They have it down cold.
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It's when PEOPLE are corrupted that the rot sinks in. And this isn't because people want to win money, it's because people want to *win* at any cost. And, as Lisa pointed out, you see it at every level.
Tom Sites wrote:
