Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Here's some comments I can make on the Mariposa Protest.  I've 
been off line for a few days with a family emergency and have not 
had a chance to respond.  I'm trying to get ready for a two day 
ride some I'm posting some comments now and more after I get back.

First - the easy one

Question:"Help me here - was not the person who lodged the 
COMPLAINT against  the alleged attacker also not a member? "

The member filing the protest has been an AERC member since Jan. 
10, 2007.  AERC would not have accepted a protest by a non-member.


Question:"As far as not penalizing abusive riders because they are 
not AERC members, well I'm not sure I agree.  If a protest were to 
be filed against an abusive rider, even if said rider was not a 
member, wouldn't the AERC be able to still publish facts and names 
and impose say a year ban on said rider?  At least it would have 
the effect of putting the information out and alerting ride 
managers.  Does AERC keep a list of sanctioned riders as a 
database that ride managers can access? "

The situation for many functions that AERC does is that it is 
supported by volunteers who are also members.  A plus for this is 
that the volunteers understand our sport and have an appreciation 
for what's involved.  A minus is that there are only so many hours 
in the day for family, work, our horses, and the sport we 
participate in.

The P&G committee is composed of dedicated volunteers who donate 
their time to what certainly isn't a fun or interesting job.  I 
think most of us would like to be on the positive aspects of our 
sport if we volunteer rather than the negative.  The Horse welfare 
committee is another that fits this description. I think it takes 
a person with exceptional dedication to volunteer for either of 
these committees and to stay with the committee.

In addition - protests take a lot of time.  Very few are easy and 
there have been more than average lately.  Filing protests against 
non-members would simply multiply the load and in my personal view 
 - have little or no effect on these non-members.  This would 
simply waste a valuable resource for members of a committee - the 
time we have to make available for our families and horses.

We don't have a list of sanctioned riders or non-paying members 
such as AHA does because we have so few.  Our method of notifying 
ride managers of sanctions against riders is by way of the 
published EN protests and leaving the member's name online in the 
protests while the sanctions are in effect.

Question:"My feeling last night was all the punishment
fell upon Patrick and none that I could see on the rider of the 
horse, except for nearly losing the horse. "

Some BoD members felt the punishment for Patrick was too harsh 
given the provocation. Patrick was the person who filed the 
successful protest concerning the Jenkins horse abuse and later 
death at the Oakland Hills ride a few years ago.  He feels very 
strongly about this and has for many years.

Others on the BoD thought that behavior like this by a member was 
unacceptable no matter what the provocation.

We are no different that the rest of the membership on this. 
Election to the BOD of Directors doesn't make us any wiser 
unfortunately.  We just try to do the best we can as do our 
committees.

Mike

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