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Re: President's message



Angie,

 I had some problems with the message too, but the $10 fee is a board
decision. The only way to make it go away is if a future board reverses
the decision. I was very disappointed in the balloting information and
EN that both sides of the the issues were not presented -only the pro's
were presented.

 In particular, and I quote from Randy Eilands column here " many board
members have reconsidered expanding the definition of LD to 0-49 miles."
Well we have a whole column from Dane Frazier promoting the issue and
1 paragraph in Randy Eilands column against the issue.  I (and I would
bet several other people) wrote to EN listing a page of reasons why
expanding LD would be a bad thing.  Unfortunately they did not see fit
to print any of these other side of the issue letters.  If an issue
really has merit, then people will vote for it in spite of having
seen someones arguements against it - so why not present both sides?

For any folks here that have not voted yet,  I think you should vote
no on making the age a rule rather than a bylaw (only needed if 0-49
LD rule passes) and no on the LD expansion.   As Randy stated in his
column a rule could be passed to prevent 24 mile rides to avoid AERC
fees so the bylaw change is not needed for that purpose.  Thinking of
forcing the novice/fun 10-15 mile rides to run under AERC LD rules
makes me cringe.  Picture it yourselves;
  1.  NO MINIMUM TIME TO COMPLETE CAN BE SET
  2.  PACE TO COMPLETE MUST EQUAL 4.16 MPH [EXCLUDING HOLDS]
  3.  AT LEAST ONE VET CHECK MUST BE PERFORMED DURING THE RIDE

How much separtation can occur by the vet check in a 15 mile ride?
Its meant as a novice event so how fast can vetting be expected to
proceed?  Is a harried/rushed vet check &/or less riding time to
complete because a higher percentage of total time had to be spent at
the hold the right way to demonstrate the sport to novices or folks 
who just want to check us (AERC) out?   Do you like the idea of a
group of people deciding that this distance is their niche and 
turning it into a race?  ( I don't feel that LD rules of 1 vet check
and recovery to 60 bpm for finish time are enough to prevent it from 
becoming a race - epsecially now with proposed point - not mileage awards)

But if we leave these fun/novice events up to the managers they can
continue to give completions only or completions and best vet score
awards, or just let folks ride the trails and join in awards dinners
and thus discourage racing.  Lets not have AERC sanctioning 10 mile
"pony express" type events -leave this distance for fun and learning
NOT RACING. 

Teresa Van Hove, #M17417 


> 
> I'm not a LD person, but I'm against the $10 fee for non-members in LD
> rides.  My ride charges $40 for the LD ride.  I think that's about all we
> should charge.  If they charged us another $10 we'd probably have to
> absorb it (and we lost money at the last ride).  That means, either no
> tent for the ride meeting, fewer porto-johns (we've got woods), one less
> vet, or some real nice hoof picks for completion awards.  If you consider
> LD rides the place where you hook in new members, then you want to keep
> the price down.  If people make a career of it, they have to join anyway
> to get credit.
> 
> 
> Angie McGhee & Kaboot
> Wildwood, GA
> Rides2far@juno.com
> Kabootnme@aol.com 
> 



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