Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

It is the FEI who will be in charge of the WEG, not AERC. AERC will have nothing to say about any of it. Maybe people need to think hard about using language effectively. Everyone has been over and under and around and through whether you all do endurance riding or endurance racing and usually someone says if it is competitive it is racing. But maybe the most important thing is not whether it is competitive or not but whether the important thing is the quality of the ride as opposed to the idea of a flat out race.  And there is a concern with the ability to repeat a successful performance many times over....this is missing from endurance racing.

From a distant dune over here, I see the US and a lot of other places doing endurance riding despite the fact that there is a competitive aspect to it. I like the idea of  endurance riding, having only seen it once at the 2001 Pan Ams. There is a quality of fun, cooperation, and friendliness to it that I have never seen in endurance racing, a sport that I've seen way too much of.

The fact is that endurance riding and endurance racing are two completely different sports. They are not the same even though some people do both of them. The logic, the ethics, the emotional experience of the two of them are totally different. Once you all settle into the concept that what they are doing in the UAE is endurance racing as opposed to endurance riding, then a way opens up to expand the difference between a sport that many of us see as being bad for the image of a sport that we like if it they are confused. Time to go around pointing out that endurance racing is what the FEI does, while endurance riding is what AERC does.  Riders can race too...but that isn't the only thing that riding is about.

Now I feel much better, how about you all?

Maryanne

On Feb 13, 2008 6:03 PM, Richard Sacks <rsacks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Well, this is going to be an interesting situation. In 2010, the FEI WEG is going to be held in Kentucky (that is in the United States for the geographically impaired). One way to affect the FEI is to refuse to participate in this event or even protest at the event. With the TV coverage the FEI would have to take note despite UAE money because of the TV money they might loose. On the flip side, doing this would give endurance a black eye that I am sure we don't want. I am sure that the USA chef d'equipe and USA riders would say that they wouldn't perform the way the did at the Jnr/Yr race, but then we might not show well on our own turf against the UAE riders and horses (some of the horses are currently being trained in KY at stables they own). Regardless of whether AERC disassociates itself from FEI prior to that time, endurance will be represented by what goes on at that event. Perhaps just the opposite is needed. Maybe AERC should get more involved in the 2010 WEG endurance event so that it can control what goes on. Some ideas that come to mind would be stricter drug enforcement rules (daily testing for 2 weeks prior), tighter vetting controls, etc. If not, just wait until PETA and the Humane society get wind of this. If you think it is hard to keep a horse, no less put on or participate in an endurance ride, just wait.

Richard Sacks
rsacks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.equipedic.com

-- 
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
msgabbani@xxxxxxxxx

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