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[RC] Get the right problem and get the problem right--promoting endurance - SusanPaul wrote: Promoting our sport isn't a bad thing. I went to a ride last week in good weather that had 5 entries in the 50 mile distance and 10 in the 25 mile ride. Promoting the sport so we might have a few more riders is a good thing. The problem wasn't promotion of this ride. The problem was a tough trail, not enough daylight hours and other Christmas-time activities. This ride, like any other AERC ride, had exposure in EN. Additionally, it had exposure in the OCER ride book, newsletters, fliers at rides and OCER list serve. The RM is an excellent manager and puts on a good ride. Most of us just didn't have the time for this ride. Therefore, spending time and money promoting this ride would have been wasted effort. Other rides have been promoted via TV (the latest Santa Fe ride is an example) and they didn't have to go around in a circle 50 times. Seems to me you'll have to decide what kind of promotion you want and define what it is you want to promote. Kind of Promotion: Do you want people to sit in the stand and watch horses going around in an oval? I just don't see that happening. Paul mentioned NASCAR and others have pointed out how NASCAR is different than the idea of horses going around a track. The thing that makes a popular spectator sport is the excitement. Cowboy mounted shooting is fun to watch...especially when the cowboy doesn't tighten his cincha and falls off! (haha...he laughed too). So,
Paul, if you (and the rest of us) can come up with a way to make something exciting out of horses going around a track 50 times, you may have something worth watching. What to promote: Do you want to promote "endurance" by definition or do you want to promote the sport of endurance horse riding? AERC rides are not run entirely on tracks. Novalty rides have been done on tracks just to show what that rider could do. If you want to promote AERC endurance riding to the public, then the event needs to take place on a trail...even a trail like Baldwin's. (Several years ago Jim Baldwin mowed 16.7 miles of trail over 3 sections of land; the riders were in view of camp 98% of the time.) Another option would be to have TV camaras and the public at spots along the trail. For
example, a point-to-point where the vet checks are at arenas or race tracks and the riders are required to go around the track coming in and leaving. Semper Obliquo (Always aside), Susan Young, The Princess of Pink Your Independent Mary Kay Beauty Consultant
Glenndale Grace Farm, Ft Gibson, Oklahoma U.S.A. "Ride on! Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride on over all obstacles, and win the race!" - Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
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