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[RC] weight divisons - k s swigart

Jon Linderman said:


I know a few riders who compete at fairly light weight classes
who must be deluding themselves.......yeah sure 20 years ago
they weighed that little, but today?   with a saddle?


I compete in the featherweight division, not because I am deluding
myself, rarely ever do I fit into that division; but because I think the
weight divisions are silly, and if I ride as a featherweight I don't
have to worry about how much I weigh, I will always meet the criteria,
no matter which saddle I use or what I decide to take along with me.  If
I ride in my old western saddle (~50 lbs) and carry all my camera
equipment (~25 lbs) that puts makes me a heavy weight; however, if I
ride in my old Wintec (~7 lbs) and don't take much of anything along
with me; I AM a featherweight.  If I declare myself a featherweight with
the AERC (since the AERC requires me to pick a weight division to use
for the whole year no matter which horse I am riding, which saddle I
choose to use and what I decide to take along with me), I either have to
declare myself a featherweight or carry rocks along with me in order to
make the weight division if I choose to use a  lighter saddle.

The fact that the AERC allows riders to accumulate points in only one
weight division at a time makes the whole weight division thing even
more silly.  Virtually nobody weighs, at every ride, for the whole ride,
what the parameters are for the weight division they are in; and the
AERC recognizes this because it even has a 4% "fudge factor" just in
case people lose weight DURING the ride (in addition to the fact that
many saddle pads are MUCH heavier at the end of a ride than they are at
the beginning).

If I declare myself a featherweight, I don't have to concern myself with
the weight of my tack and/or other equipment to still be in compliance
with the rules.  The last thing I want to be concerning myself over when
I am tacking up at a ride is whether I have taken enough stuff along
with me to make some silly weight division, which is virtually
meaningless with respect to the outcome of the event anyway.

I consider the featherweight division to be the "open" division, where
as all the other divisions are a restricted handicapped divisions of
some sort.  And, quite frankly, I consider myself good enough to compete
in the open division.  I don't need a handicap. :)

kat
Orange County, Calif.



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