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At 10:30 PM 2/19/2006 Sunday, you wrote:
> On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 19:24:25 -0700, Bruce Weary <bweary@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >   But more impressive to me, and to many who attended, was a new rider
> >that participated, whom I now call Little Big Man. His name is Colton
> >Madeiros, and he is six (6) years old. He started the 65 miler with his
> >dad, Matt, but when his dad got pulled, he continued on and finished
> >under the watchful eye of Dame Karen Chaton. The next morning, he had
> >the audacity to walk (even run) normally, and be apparently medication
> >and caffeine free. He looks like a full grown cowboy that someone washed
> >in hot water and shrunk in size. He has the boots, jeans, Carharrt
> >jacket and a black Stetson hat that's as big as he is. Oh, and he
> >finished the ride in plenty of time for cartoons and milk and cookies. I
> >am more assured tonight about the future welfare of our sport, with
> >riders like him stepping up to "wear the pants" of an endurance rider,
> >while other kids his age are still filling theirs.
>
> At first I wasn't going to respond to this on the list, but I changed my mind.
>
> The two reasons the Junior Committee and the Board of Directors have given for
> not having a minimum age for riders at AERC rides are 1) it's not a problem
> because it almost never happens anyway, and 2) it's the parents right to make
> that decision.
>
> Well, we see again that it does happen, pretty much every year.
>
> And we don't say "it's the horse owner's right to decide when his horse is old
> enough."  Why are we less concerned about protecting children than 
> we are about
> protecting our horses?
>
> Is it going to take a tragic accident, with a small child severely injured or
> worse, before the AERC faces up to its responsibilities?
>
> Joe Long


I think AERC has done the right thing thus far and here's why using a 
story from a different sport. My kids learned to swim at what I 
thought was an early age, 2-3yo, but needed watching and were just 
average splashers. The school swim coach had his kid actually 
swimming, breast stroke, crawl, etc, and underwater for up to a 
minute before 1 yo. The little bugger could not walk or talk but swam 
like a minnow and was probably safer in the water than most of us 
adult splashers. It appears that "Little Big Man" probably has 
parents like the swim coach who started him out very young and gave 
him plenty of training and access to horses. Those parents thought 
their child was qualified to ride and now the kid has proven it 
himself under the guidance of a sponsor. It's true that things can go 
wrong at any time to any one of us in this sport but I don't think 
age should be the limiting factor. I do think that a horse and rider 
certification test of some kind might be a good idea tho, like a 
drivers license test for cars, just in case the next parents have 
overestimated their kids abilities. Congrats to Karen and Colton for 
a safe 65 completion.
Don Huston



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