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[RC] Minors at Tevis - k s swigartbrncntry said about Courtney's desire to ride Tevis next year unsponsored as a minor: Courtney, if there is one thing horses should have taught you, it is to be patient. Tevis will be waiting for you in 2006. While it is true that Tevis will most likely be there in 2006 (not 100% sure, but nothing is), it may also be true that Courtney will not be anywhere near there. For all we know, she will be graduating from high school (she is of that age) and going off to Harvard...or the Army. So it may not be feasible for her to forgo it in 2005 and wait until 2006. Consequently, there is absolutely no reason that she shouldn't (if she wants to) make an appeal to the Tevis Board that they consider changing their rules so she can ride it unsponsored. She appears to have made the appropriate effort of making a reasoned petition to the Board. And it appears that the Board has considered the reasons for her petition and decided (which is their task) that her reasons aren't good enough. It may also be that they MIGHT have considered changing their rules for an unsponsored minor (remember, according to the AERC she is no longer a junior and therefore no longer requires a sponsor so we are talking about a legal minor here, not an AERC junior), but that they wouldn't for one with as little experience as she appears to have, and have considered it more polite to tell her, "No, we don't allow any minors out on the trail without adult supervision." rather than telling her, "We might have considered it for somebody with more experience than you, but your record does not warrant it." And judging from Roxanne's letter, the desire to NOT have to evaluate the records of minors and tell some of them that they are too inexperienced to be allowed out on the trail alone is part of the Board's motivation for sticking to the "no unaccompanied minors allowed out on the trail." If the Board were to make rules in advance for qualifications that a minor could have in order to forgo the requirement for sponsorship, it is unlikely that somebody with only about 200 miles of successful completion (and none of that in 100 mile rides) would be their cut off point (I am willing to concede that her AERC record is not 100% accurate, but it ain't gonna be off by enough to put her in the "thousands of miles of experience" category). However, there is also no reason that Courtney should not politely ask for support from others (via her post to Ridecamp) to attempt to change the Board's mind on their evaluation of her petition. And there is no reason for the people of Ridecamp not to tell her that they don't support her in this request and that the more mature thing to do would be to accept the decision of the Tevis Board since they are more likely to know what is appropriate for their event. She can now decide whether she wants to see if she can garner support from elsewhere (which as long as she does it rationally and politely, that's okay with me), or to accept that the ruling body of Tevis has made a decision and go find herself a sponsor or wait until she is 18. It is entirely possible that neither of those options is feasible, in whcih case, she will just have to not do Tevis at all, at which point she will have learned (or have reaffirmed, since hopefully it is something her parents taught her before now :)) the lesson that sometimes you just don't get to have the things you want. kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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