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Re: [RC] [RC] President's Cup - heidiHeidi,Truman,and all Right from WEC 1998 onward up till now ,to be fair,and statistics do not lie,we all have to credit to where it deservedly belong.The guys in UAE have got it right as far as endurance at international level is concerned.You have to accept that US of A and the rest have been comphrehensively beaten in all major international meet except the WEC 1998 when Valerie Kanavy saved the day for the rest. Nik, I do not argue that point, and I commend those who have accomplished what they have. All I am saying is that we also have something which they do not--a form of competition and longevity in the sport that is missing in FEI. At the international level, the win is everything. In AERC, the win is NOT everything. There are many ways to "win" in AERC and in American regional endurance groups, including being able to take the SAME horse year after year to accumulate mileage, awards for consecutive completions, etc. This does not take away anything from FEI. What bothers me is the clamboring to try to make AERC like FEI, or visa versa, or even really compare the two in small details. It is not the same, we ride AERC rides for different reasons, and the accomplishments are not comparable. Many of our USA riders simply are not willing to expend horses in the fashion that they must be expended to race at maximum capacity, because we have reason to still want to ride the SAME horses for 10 year long careers or longer. To us, that is a goal just as important as the UAE rider excelling in one prestigious race. Bravo to their efforts and success. But to say they have "beaten" the USA at endurance is not accurate. They have beaten us at their sport. They have not yet tried ours. Heidi ============================================================ They're athletes! This is a partnership between horse and rider - we don't have any jockeys out there, just pals and partners. We'd allow a rider with a broken foot, a sore back and a nasty cold to compete - but we would never let a horse in a similiar condition hit the trail. ~ Dr. Barney Flemming DVM ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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