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RE: [RC] re: revolution - heidiWe cannot assume that all riders have Stagg's skill and knowledge or Super's capabilities. There are those who THINK they do, but don't. That's why we have laws...and rules...and regulations...and educational programs. Perhaps 5 is too young....perhaps the Horse Welfare Committee will come up with statistics that support that. Should we change the age to 7? What do YOU think? There has to be a balance...and there are always exceptions. Where we set the bar is the "relative" aspect. There is no "perfect" law or rule, but when we DO make one, we should enforce it. AERC does. Obviously, FEI doesn't. I personally think that 5 is a good starting point for most horses, and that the rule as it is now is the right "balance." But as you say, there is no perfect rule. The FEI age rule of 7 allows for a horse to be in its third season by the time it gets to FEI--again, a good "balance." There are horses that are not ready to race at 7--but there are also horses that have been brought up since age 5 and are ready to go. I agree that when rules are made, they should be enforced. Where my experience differs from yours is that I've seen AERC rules fail to be enforced as well. And likewise, I've seen FEI enforce their rules in most cases where I've had experience with them. Both organizations could stand some improvement. Our AERC drug rule still suffers from the problem of infrequent testing. I'm one of those who would be happy to pay another buck or two in my ride entry to have more testing done. We don't really know how well our drug rule works, since we don't test at very many rides, and don't test very many horses when we do. FEI certainly fouled up on the test that has been under discussion--but your very comments about democracy relate to the fact that due process must be gone through in order to enforce, even when you know darn well somebody is guilty. It is a double standard in this case to stand on the principle of democracy and at the same time slam FEI for not hanging the guilty when the due process was not properly taken care of. As a believer in democracy myself, no matter how much I hate what happened with this drug test, I still think that it is better to err on the side of making a mistake than to become the Gestapo. JMHO. In the US (at least in the SE) there is a lot of "peer pressure" when people let their ego get in the way of doing what's right for their horses. OUR riders, and OUR vets make it known in no uncertain terms that such actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated....and I can't remember when we had a horse die in the SE Region as a direct result of overriding. Peer pressure is a good thing. And in order to maintain peer pressure on the FEI, we have to remain peers... Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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