>g'day from the east, ed! it's good to see another aussie here. were you at
>the quilty this year? by all accounts it was a good ride, but your (wa's)
>interpretation of the "no outside assistance" rule caught a few easterners
>by surprise - do you guys really read it so literally, or has it been blown
>a little out of proportion in the telling?
>
>(the tom quilty gold cup is australia's national ride and it was hosted this
>year in western australia. apparently a few people went off course in sight
>of a checkpoint and the checkpoint people just watched them go - in this
>part of the country the checkpoint people would have said something, but
>apparently in wa that's considered "outside assistance" which is, of course,
>not allowed)
>
>nik
>*****************************************
>Nikki Ward Griffith NSW Australia
>nikki@griffith.dwr.csiro.au
>*****************************************
Nikki, Thanks for your response. I was at the Quilty here in WA and my wife
had hoped to ride
but unfortunately her horse went lame two days before the ride and she
withrdew him.
Both Linda and I were on the organising committee and were very pleased how
the event went after all the hard work we had put into it. There were 105
starters and 62 finishers. It was great to see the 32 riders who came from
over east and well done to the 25 who completed. It would have been nice to
see more than one WA rider in the top ten but there is always next year. I
think a number of WA riders will be treking across the Nullabor in June to
Mytleford in Victoria.
Replying to your question about the outside assistance rule. To many it
would seem our interpretation of the no outside assitance rule was very
harsh, but we have had problems in the past with the checkpoint people
misdirecting riders. The worst case was just at the start of a new ride
when a group of riders were misdirected down a main road instead of up the
ride track. The riders travelled along way down this road having difficulty
controlling their fresh mounts. When they had gone about 5 kilometres and
could see no markers they realised they were not on the ride track and back
tracked to the check point to be directed onto the right trail by the course
marker. At the end of the ride these riders were very angry at being
misdirected off the trail and into a dangerous situation. They asked the
Western Australian Endurance Riders Association (WAERA) to do something
about it. So two years ago the WAERA committee decided that to prevent any
futher problems the check point personel should not give directions to
riders as it is up to the rider to follow the course.
Because of this ruling the ride course marking has improved enormously and
riders do follow the pre-ride briefing and the course markers much more closely.
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Ed Blanchard
PO Box 469, Merredin, Western Australia, 6415
Ph/Fax 61 90 44 1066
Email eblancha@opennet.net.au
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