Can you stand just a little more input on cash awards for rides?
I heard of a ride that was going to be put on by locals in celebration
of the Idaho centennial back in whatever year that was. Their idea was
to start the race on an indian reservation and run them to the highway,
and they wanted to hold up the horses at the highway so they would have
several for the "final show" on the track at the fairgrounds. They were
going to then race these horses, after 50 miles of running, a couple of
laps around the track for a winner take all cash prize!!!!! When I
heard of it, I went ballistic. I immediately went to the County
Commissioner and took over the ride. I was new to the area and the NW
region and cold called certain endurance riders for help. And I got
great help. The race went off okay and no one was hurt. I successfully
got the cash award out of the list of prizes. Behind the scenes, I had
an awful time with the locals trying to work against me and what AERC
sanctioning is all about. Ignorance about racing horses 50 miles is
definitely not bliss and real hard to work with when you are dealing
with people in charge of money sitting in a county government that want
to put on a race AND DON'T REALLY CARE IF HORSES DIE!!
Despite this experience, have strong feelings about races with prize
money and think that if you have a knowledgeable, experienced ride
manager and good, strict vets...go for it. I would enter. I also have
interest in multi-day endurance rides longer than 5 days and am
considering putting one on in the next couple of years.
TOTALLY DIFFERENT SUBJECT.
Harry Boughton was the designer of the 1990 ROC in Ennis, MT...the 3 day
160 that was put on to sponsor Eagle Mount. I happen to live near him
(my career now has me in Bozeman, MT) and 100 miles from the trail, and
was tossing the idea of putting on a 1 or 2 day race on that trail.
(just thinking about it at this point for August this year or next) He
still has all of his maps and distances. He measured the trail
distances with a wheel. Because it is a fairly remote area with not
many local riders, I was looking for feedback to see if there was
interest of people to come to an AERC sanctioned ride on that gorgeous
but hard trail.
>----------
>From:
> ridecamp-d-request@endurance.net[SMTP:ridecamp-d-request@endurance.net]
>Sent: Monday, December 09, 1996 7:43 AM
>To: ridecamp-d@endurance.net
>Subject: ridecamp-d Digest V96 #14
>
>