you missed my point....regardless of how the RM feels or even how the vet feels about LDs, LDs in my region are not suffering for lack of entries. Obviously, this is not the big concern that some are making it out to be. Most endurance riders I know have no problem speaking out if they are unhappy with conditions at a ride. They let ride management know if they feel there is not enough water or if the trail is not marked well or if awards don't meet expectations. If most LD riders thought this was an issue they certainly would let RM know and even if they were not comfortable being outspoken they would not support the ride.
You know that this might not even be an issue on ridecamp if the AERC LD BC was not identical to the endurance AERC BC. We already have set precedence that the finish of the LD is different from the finish of an endurance ride because placing is based on recovery. There could easily be compromise on this BC issue if placing in the Top Ten were not a factor in judging LD BC. So my suggestion is that the LD committee committee come up with a BC award that does not recognize a time factor. Those that choose to ride fast will still get to be in contention if their horses warrant that recognition and then there will be no reason for a RM or Vet from any region to oppose giving an AERC LD BC. If the fact that the RM or vet is lazy and that is why they don't want to give a bc this will certainly be apparent when the time factor is taken out of the equation.
Standardization keeps being brought up....and in fact, as I recall, was used as an argument to make the LD BC identical to the endurance BC. My question is WHY does the official AERC endurance BC and LD BC have to be judged identically. As I have already mentioned, we don't judge the finish the same in the LD and the endurance rides. As an organization, we certainly do not promote "Marathon" racing which in essence would be a LD that awarded first place to the first horse over the finish line in a LD. An LD is not a shorter version of a 50 mile ride as defined by AERC so BC does not need to be identical. It is not like comparing a 50 to a 75 to a 100 and then having different criteria for juding BC. There is no reason to recognize a time factor in the LD BC as LD is not a shorter version of endurance.
Why can AERC have different finishing criteria for the LD and longer distances and then insists on having the same BC judging criteria for the two events? The two events are not identical because of the finish therefore I don't understand why the judging criteria would have to be identical.
