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Re: [RC] 25milers - heidi

Yet again I read "making LD into endurance..." etc. etc.  I will repeat
again  that 25 milers were riding endurance when endurance rides first
started.   They weren't called LD until sometime after 1975.  They were
25 mile endurance  rides.  The change was made by the board of directors
behind closed doors a long  damn time ago for whatever reason.  Did the
Great American Horse Race mileage  have something to do with it?  I
don't know.  Ask the directors who were  there.  No input from the
membership was required.

Not quite.  There was only a brief time during which 25s were sanctioned
as endurance rides.  Originally the AERC minimum was 50 miles (1972). 
Then existing rides asked to be sanctioned (I know we had a 35-miler and a
40-miler at that time in the NW) and shortly after AERC came on the scene,
managers also got the idea of offering two distances, so 50-mile rides
would offer 25s.  In the mid-70s these were sanctioned, but not for very
many years.  It opened such a Pandora's box that the BoD (and not behind
closed doors, either--there was a LOT of input, especially from ride vets
and concerned riders!) once again set the 50-mile minimum.  (And no, it
didn't have anything to do with the GAHR, to the best of my
knowledge--just to the abuses that occurred when the 25s were sanctioned
for points.)

For awhile, there WERE no sub-50 rides associated with AERC at all.  But
many managers still saw the virtue in having a "novice" distance, since
getting the points chasers out of the 25s made them much more manageable. 
I know that in PNER, we were using the pulse-down-at-finish concept long
before AERC decided to sanction LDs.  And when AERC first did this, many
areas (NW included) started having 24s because they felt so strongly that
AERC needed more restrictions on LD rides.  After a couple of years, AERC
finally settled into pretty much the sort of LD routine that we have now. 
Can't remember exactly when this was, but I WAS on the board during this
process, so it was in the 80s sometime.  And with minor fine-tuning, the
LD program has functioned fairly well ever since, despite the lambasting
by a few.  I'm sure it can still use minor fine-tuning--but the basic
concept as different from endurance riding has proven to be a very good
one.

Joe is correct that the "limited" name was the most applicable of several
choices.  "Novice" was rejected for obvious reasons--not all who ride them
are novices.  "Training" was likewise rejected--again, clearly not all
ride them for training.  "Limited" seemed to fit, and certainly was not
intended to be derogatory in any way.

Heidi


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REAL endurance is eating egg salad sandwiches for 3 days straight! Heidi
Sowards... but then again... REAL endurance is riding behind someone who
ate egg salad sandwiches for 3 days straight!
~ author unkown

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Replies
[RC] 25milers, KYielding