My horse has a large glairing
freeze brand. That's all the ID he needs. One that the horse thieves can
easily see, and hopefully be discouraged by. What pray tell is the
incentive for all of these so called ringer entries.?? All the big prize money
awards ? All the big monetary return on our endurance ride investments?
Sure there may have been a few over the years, I'm betting very darn few. I
think in 20 some years in the sport I may have heard rumblings of maybe 3
or 4. And while I don't think anything was ever done about it, everybody
seemed to know who what where and when. So they certainly didn't get away with
anything. Those kinds of people have a way of fading out of the
sport. They do become known for what they are. We already have plenty
of rules in place, and consequences for breaking them. You can not
legislate morality, honesty or good sportsmanship in riders or vets.
Someone who wants to cheat will find a way no matter what. I don't see the
need for a large scale chip program that would in reality only benefit the ones
being paid for installing the chips. Certainly nothing should be mandatory
to AERC members. I say if there seems to be a ringer problem in the
sport, there should be a NON FINANCIAL GAIN
study by people OTHER than the ones who would be gaining financially
from installing or monitoring this plan, to determine if there is a genuine need
for it or just another overreaction to a very few incidents. If
people are seeing it and not caring enough to report it to management, or
protest, or catch the ringer rider out on the trail and have a talk
with them, then we still don't need chips. I can't
imagine anyone getting away with it very much. I mean we all ride with
these people we will all see pretty much the same people and horses in pretty
much our areas all the time. I am quite sure that any number of people would
know if I brought a plain gray/white Arab gelding and tried to pass it off as
Boo, everybody would know it was not
Boo. Unless I went to New York. And the top horses and
hard core riders are known everywhere. Once caught these ringer riders
would be out of the running and probably out of the
sport. To Quote John T. on another subject sometime
past, ""Its a horse club for criminey sakes"" It's a non money
sport. There is just no incentive to cheat on any scale.
Annie George
Anne George Saddlery www.vtc.net/~ageorge
