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Re: [AERC-Members] [RC] Punishment at this stage? - sharp penny

Dawn,
 I agree that these riders, high profile or not, should
all be accountable for their actions or lack there of which
AERC is doing' now with suspensions, fines and so forth. My
point was addressing stronger *corrections* needs to be our
LAST concern right now. Getting AERC unified and stronger
needs to be a top priority on the list..even before making
rule changes to benefit horse welfare. 
How can you publicly put someone in the *spotlight* you
have described under the guise of AERC without being
accused of libel and slander? As an individual you are free
to shun those you perceive as being guilty but when you
drag AERC into this it's a whole 'nother ball game. At this
point alot of this finger pointing and gossiping of the
supposed wrongs of certain individuals is just here-say and
conjuncture (that seems to be being lead by people with
*axes to grind* right or wrongly) which would lead to very
public legal battles. Do you honestly think we as an
organization can afford to be closely scrutinized by John Q
Public at this point in time and avoid ramifications that
could possibly eliminate endurance riding as we know it
now? I'm not worried about AERC's ability to fight such
public legal battles...I'm concerned about what will happen
when non horse people want to try to save endurance horses
with measures that could change the way we run our rides
and most likely in ways we would'nt't want.

Respectfully,
Penny
--- RDCARRIE@xxxxxxx wrote:
Hi Penny,
I thought later (after sending that message) that the
word "punishment", 
might be taken wrong.  I'm not talking about fining
riders, kicking them out of 
AERC, or something like that.  I was thinking more along
the lines of basically 
putting chronic problem riders under a spotlight in front
of their peers 
(other riders)...something that would let other riders
know, and that problem rider 
would *know* they know, that the problem rider is not
putting their horse 
first.  If such a rider knew that others were watching
them, they might ride a 
little more carefully.

Why should we, as riders and an organization, look the
other way just because 
someone is a high profile rider (which could be defined
several ways - 
mileage, wins, longevity, etc.)?  Doesn't that put our
house of cards on even 
shakier ground?  Shouldn't we expect those riders be
especially knowledgeable and 
less likely to have repeated metabolic problems?  And
shouldn't they recognize 
that they are the ones the very rank newbies are most
likely to look to for 
"how it's done", at least initially, and thus they have a
responsibility to set a 
good example?  Just some thoughts.

I do agree with you about uniformity...I've only ridden
in CT region except 
one ride in another region, but just from reading RC and
talking to some 
friends who live and ride in other regions, it sounds
like there are a lot of 
differences between regions.  But we can set uniform ways
of doing things, and all 
abide by them, and some people will *still* continue to
crash horses.  It just 
seems to me that until the sacred halo is removed from
"high profile" riders 
everywhere and they are held responsible for their
actions, they'll continue 
on.  *That* is part of cleaning up our own house!  And
don't get me wrong, I'm 
not talking about the person whose horse has a couple of
minor metabolic 
problems, or the person whose horse ends up on a jug for
the first time.  I'm 
talking about those who repeatedly have major problems.  

As for the riders taking legal action, well, if the
consequences are outlined 
in the AERC rules, they can decide to join AERC or
not...if they don't like 
the rules, don't join.  JMO...

Dawn



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Replies
Re: [RC] Punishment at this stage?, RDCARRIE