Ridecamp: RE: [RC] protecting the horses...

I believe that you are all missing one of the basic tenets
of endurance riding. Section 2 of both the endurance and LD
definitions in the AERC By-laws states "All riders who
successfully complete the ride must receive a completion
award".

This simple statement presupposes that there will be those
who do not successfully complete the ride. Be it they get
lost, they have vet problems or they just run out of time,
it is expected that some are just not going to successfully
complete the ride.

Why then are we always looking for ways, finding excuses and
trying so hard to lower the standards of endurance
competition to meet the unwarranted desires of a very few
who would have us compete to the lowest common denominator?

In life, some people excel and some people fail. That is
life! The majority of people barely meet a standard.

The progenitors of endurance riding set a high but very
reasonable level to be met for completion. Do any of you
really feel it is necessary to lower these standards? Do you
really want competition to be just average? If you do,
please stop the world so I can get off.

Bob

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of terre
Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2002 2:19 PM
To: Nancy Mitts; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [RC] protecting the horses...



>
>and 2) nothing "forces the conservative riders" to do
anything.  Oh,
>unless you mean their desire to win....Otherwise, they are
free to ride
>their own ride.
>
>It does if you MUST gallop over the good parts in order to
finish on time.
>All the extra hold times & "must walk" trails that are put
in assuming
>people will go full speed everywhere else, forces them to
do just that.


       I think we all agree that mandating a certain number
of holds per
ride is unworkable.  Perhaps, though, we should try to
establish
"guidelines" for the optimum TOTAL hold time for rides, to
be broken up
among the holds however the RM chooses.  I say guidelines,
because weather
and other conditions can hugely affect what constitutes a
beneficial amount
of hold time.
        But this brings us to the question, at what point do
long/frequent
holds start impacting a significant number of riders'
ability to finish in
time?  How many riders are actually taking a full 12 hours
to ride 50
miles, and would shorter/longer or more/fewer hold times
make this worse
(time off trail) or better (recovered horses)?  In the case
of 100 mile
rides, time lost during daylight is often tripled after
dark--depending on
the nature of the trail of course.
         I can't help thinking there is probably a 'magic
number' for
optimum total hold time--maybe 1'30" for a 50, something
like that... Also,
perhaps the riders that are frequently riding close to
overtime need to
learn to ride not "faster", but "smarter".  Many of the OTs
I have seen are
due to people getting lost, etc...and learning how to do a
ride without
wasting any time is what is meant by "strategy"!

terre (any and all tips appreciated!)


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