Re: Newbie query: why required weight?

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

On Thu, 3 Sep 1998, Teddy Lancaster wrote:

> Discussion has been that perhaps FEI should consider 3 weight classes (light,
> middle and heavy).  Unfortunately, tradition has not in the past allowed for
> more than ONE champion at a time.  So, for a good number of years to come,
> when you ride an FEI ride, expect to weigh in at least 165 lbs.

Let us hope that this is not the case and that the FEI endurance people
learn from the FEI eventing people and do away with the minimum weight
requirement all together.

This requirement does not even begin to make anything "fairer" since
heavier riders (even those weighing 200 lbs) never have to address the
question, "Where do I put this stuff?"  Nor do they have to distract
themselves from the competition itself to have officials signing their
name on duct tape.

And nobody has ever demonstrated that the amount of weight carried during
the ride has any bearing on the outcome of an endurance competition. 

The more I hear about the things that many of the "underweight" riders are
having to do in order to meet the weight requirement, the more convinced I
am that it is an absolutely silly requirement and introduces far more
inequities than it could possibly mitigate.

kat
Orange County, Calif.