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I have been a card carrying member of AERC since
1991. I that time I have (in no particular order) gotten a Master's
degree, gotten married, had a baby, had my husband try distance riding back
when Michigan had few LD rides so I spent a year doing more CTR, had a horse
die of EPM, had another horse bow a tendon just badly enough to be unsound in
Michigan sand (although he has a wonderful second career as a 4-H horse in nice,
flat arenas), retrained a wild race horse, moved from Texas to Michigan,
and spent somewhere around $400 for AERC membership. Recordkeeping and
national or regional placings? Don't make me laugh. My total mileage
is around 250 endurance miles and somewhere around 300 for LD. I
went on a grand total of one, count it up, one ride this year, but I
will happily shell out my annual dues (and my husband's, although I doubt
he will ever even ride an LD) again next month. Why?
Because AERC needs the member numbers to fight for trail use,
organizational strength when being part of other groups (AHC,
USET). I am curious to know from Joe L, though, what benefits I
get as a member that the day riders don't. There are over 5000 AERC
members, and maybe 1- 200 awards every year, so it's gotta be something other
than an embroidered blanket!
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