Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Indeed there are few facts concerning the GSFHR accident and, as is  
usual, many are still contradictory. At some point the situation of  
the accident in kansas will be well understood and the details sorted  
out.

But the general issue of how endurance events are presented and  
perceived both by our community and the general population is  
something that we might discuss.

A few years ago, AERC expunged the world "race" from the official  
documents of the organization. "Race" was replaced by "Ride" in the  
rules and bylaws (Ride was already the "R" in AERC). It was known  
then that the publication of "race" brought with it connotations that  
were not putting the sport in the proper context for broader  
acceptance as a non-threatening recreational pastime.

Of course, in a timed event,  where incentives are awarded for most  
rapid completion of the course, the duck still quacks (so to speak:).  
And we like it that way basically, we have all sorts of competitions  
(first to finish, last to finish, most miles in a year, etc. etc.)  
all of which are built around this timed event concept. There are  
other versions of distance riding which remove this timed component  
for sure, but they are not the same.

So the question, "how to have a race which is not a race?" is one  
that has dogged endurance for quite some time. It's not that it  
matters much to the endurance community (IMO). It is that it matters  
much more when accidents do happen which raise the level of  
visibility of the sport beyond our community. When news of an  
accident hits the local tv news and is picked up by AP etc. the "R"  
word becomes much more of a potential problem.

This particular event, the "Great Santa Fe Horse Race" (or GSFHR),  
made everyone in the US endurance community nervous from the start.  
AERC members put a large effort into refining the event before  
granting AERC  sanction for the event. AERC did it's "due diligence"  
in researching the qualifications of the organizers, the trails, the  
insurance, etc. before sanction was granted. That is well documented  
I think.  Once the event was underway, it was observed by AERC  
watchers and reports came back to validate the capabilities of the  
management to run the event.

So, as far as is generally known, AERC has done all that could be  
done to make the GSFHR a success. The accident happens. AERC (and the  
endurance community as a whole) might want to be proactive in saying  
"We did all we could to make the GSFHR a good AERC event, run within  
the AERC rules, to make sure it was a ride at which AERC members  
would be safe and happy attending!". I'd encourage AERC to make such  
a press release.

But, to really get to my point. IMO AERC should never have sanctioned  
an event with the "R" word in it's title. The "Race" in Great Santa  
Fe Horse Race may have set the context for all discussions of the  
event and the accident. This would be too bad. When the focus could  
be on the trail, the horses, etc. As we see in the press, the # of  
days of coming in first gets more press than the number of days (or  
miles) ridden. The difference between a Race and a Ride.

jt


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