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Re: [PNER] RE: [RC] Presidents Cup: (now horse longevity) - heidiThey do have points incentives for riders however - but the rider doesn't have to campaign the same horse. IMO this is for the benefit of the horse. (I have stated before that I think the AERC award system encourages horses to be ridden too hard). We often see our (USA) top horses compete in several 100 mile races per season, and also 50's. Great accolades for high point horse/rider team, but very hard on the horses. Boy howdy, we will have to agree to disagree on THAT one, Steph. While I agree that the UAE riders are doing a great deal to prepare, the bottom line is that when you put all your eggs in one basket for a race, the risks to the horse seem to increase exponentially. If I were in the business of horse life insurance, I'd crank the premiums WAAAAY up on horses that run top-level FEI rides, vs the ones that go do AERC rides week after week. Furthermore, we have such longevity in AERC that 1000 mile horses are practically a dime a dozen, and 2000 mile horses are not at all unusual. The air becomes a bit more rarified when the count gets up around 3000 or 4000, but a sport that has so many people taking fair-to-middling horses out and going 1000 or more miles is doing SOMETHING right. Yes, we have a ragged few who take the mileage too far. I'll take that any day over a race where well over half the entrants are pushing so fast that they produce sufficient pathology (either biomechanical or metabolic) to merit being pulled. The stellar horses seem to come and go--and while I hear claims that they are being retired to other disciplines, I'll bet my next meal that a fair number are no longer suitable to go down the trail. Nope, the incentive to have to take the SAME horse to the next ride is IMO one of the biggest PROTECTIVE factors we have in our sport here in this country--it makes riders stop and think before they put their foot down on the accelerator. (Or at least it makes MOST riders think--there are always a few incapable of that, regardless of what system you use.) When they take season-long endurance out of the equation, it ceases to be endurance as a great many of us know and love it. One of the big bragging points to me about AERC is that the horse is NOT expendable in the equation. If you can't take care of the horse well enough to FINISH this race and be able to take it on to the next race, you ain't gonna accumulate honors. That is a bona fide star in our constellation, not a drawback. And it is this very aspect that I see as one of the biggest problems with FEI. IMO, as long as we have both, we have a semblance of balance--our riders who "grow up" through AERC usually have that preservation of the horse mentality instilled by the very fact that the horse has to be able to go again next week or next month. One of my favorite expressions as a ride vet is when a rider with a pending problem comes up to me with the intent to pull and says, "We'll live to ride another week." That is what is missing in FEI. Heidi ============================================================ Of course things aren't perfect, perfect doesn't exist on this earth. Doesn't mean we won't go on trying to get better at what we do. Besides, if everything was perfect today, what would you do tomorrow? Slamming each other doesn't get anything done. ~ Dot Wiggins ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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