Re: AERC completion time rule - feedback wanted

["Joe Long" <jlong@mti.net>]

On Tue, 13 Jan 1998 12:59:15 -0700, "Robert J. Morris"
<bobmorris@rmci.net> wrote:

>Steph & Ride Camp:

>Long before the Trilby/Les episodes (my apologies to you both, but this is
>how it is recognized) I find in the 1980 Ride Managers Handbook (Jim
>Remillard was AERC Pres.) the following:

>A prescribed maximum time is usually set for completion of the ride.
>Typically this is 12 hours for 50 miles, and 24 hours for 100 miles

>This was an offshoot of the Tevis "100 miles in one day". My records do not
>extend back beyond that as far as Ride Managers handbooks are concerned.

Yes ... notice the "usually" and "typically."

>I have always been in favor of the 12 hour rule and continue to do so. (as
>you can see from my recent posts.)To me it is disconcerting to have
>persons,  with inadequately prepared horses and/ or not properly prepared
>themselves, who are not willing to be prepared to COMPETE, be given the
>same recognition as those persons making the effort.

>If at my age (and that also includes Arlene and many others of like
>longevity such as Bill Ansenberger, Julie Suhr and Bob Suhr and many
>others), if we ask no quarter, no special conditions, then let the younger
>set, those wanting special  considerations show why they REALLY need them.

>To finish is to win and winning is not a given in life

Bob, you're arguing against a straw man.  The motivation for seeking
flexibility in the time limit is not to make it easy, or to reward
unprepared riders.  It is to recognize that sh*t happens, and that
trail and weather conditions vary greatly, and that well-prepared
riders and horses can be unfairly penalized by *ARBITRARY* time
limits.

I don't agree with granting individual riders exceptions, no matter
how selfless an act they may have done (helping someone else) that
made them late.  But the ride managers are in a far better position to
assess their trail and weather conditions than the AERC, and it is
impossible for any time limit set by the Board for *all rides* to
produce anything close to an equal degree of challenge.  Nor does it
make sense IMO to penalize riders for vandalized trails; where is the
"challenge" in that?  So when you say that flexibility in allowed
completion times would take challenge out of the sport, you are simply
wrong.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
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