{"id":1380,"date":"2011-09-10T17:46:24","date_gmt":"2011-09-10T22:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/enduranceintrospection.com\/wp\/?p=1380"},"modified":"2013-11-24T17:47:14","modified_gmt":"2013-11-24T22:47:14","slug":"vive-la-difference-or-never-assume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/enduranceintrospection.com\/wp\/vive-la-difference-or-never-assume\/","title":{"rendered":"Vive La Difference! (Or Never Assume!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Endurance News, September 2011, Ride Managers\u2019 Column, monthly publication of the American Endurance Ride Conference, www.aerc.org<\/a>, 866-271-2372<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the remarkable things about endurance rides as they are sanctioned under AERC is that there are a fairly limited number of rules that we must follow in order to conduct a ride.<\/p>\n

This means that there are tremendous regional differences in the way rides are managed and even more differences when we look at individual ride to individual ride.<\/p>\n

Ride managers have a significant amount of latitude on how they mark trail, how long their loops are (if there are<\/span> loops), how camp is set up, and what \u201cfrills\u201d or special luxuries they include as part of the entry fee.<\/p>\n

This, in many ways, is the magic of our sport, and one of the things that makes it exciting to go to a new ride that you\u2019ve never tried before!<\/p>\n

With these differences come challenges, however.<\/p>\n

Ride managers have some duty to communicate to the riders about what to expect at their ride.<\/p>\n

Should riders bring their own drinking and horse water, because none is available in camp?<\/p>\n

Should riders bring their own toilet paper because there are no potties?<\/p>\n

Will all the holds be away from camp, and if so, will ride management take crewing items out to the holds for the riders?<\/p>\n

Is there an \u201cambulance trailer\u201d that can bring a lame or ill horse back to camp from an away location?\u00a0 Is there a charge for this service?<\/p>\n

Will riders be fed?\u00a0 Will there be a farrier on-site?\u00a0 What type of restraints (e.g. portable paddocks, picket lines, hobbles) are allowed or disallowed in the ride camp?<\/p>\n

Now, I know that describing every detail about a ride cannot possibly be written without a ride flier or entry that reads something like War And Peace<\/span> (except longer), but if there\u2019s something exceptional about your ride, or something unusual about what you do, or do not offer, it is wise to get this information out to your potential competitors in advance of the ride.<\/p>\n

Conversely, riders should never assume.\u00a0 [There\u2019s an old expression about what happens when you \u201cassume\u201d that involves parsing of the word in to its component sub-words, but if you\u2019re not familiar with it, I won\u2019t expound on that here in our family publication.]<\/p>\n

If you have questions about a ride you\u2019re thinking of attending, ask!<\/p>\n

Sometimes the best source of information is the ride manager, but as likely as not, it\u2019s the riders who have attended and ridden the ride.\u00a0 Ask around.\u00a0 What is the ride like?\u00a0 Is it an easy ride to do without a crew, or rather daunting without help?\u00a0\u00a0 How does it compare to such-and-such ride with regard to footing and terrain?\u00a0 Is the ride camp level or on the side of a near-cliff?\u00a0 Such queries are often heard not only in actual ride camps, but also within the virtual endurance communities of the AERC Members\u2019 Forum and Ridecamp.\u00a0 Run a search, and you\u2019ll see what I mean.<\/p>\n

If you show up at a ride without doing a little homework, you can end up surprised, and not always in a pleasant way!<\/p>\n

The beauty of our rides is in their ability to share their different trails, from different camps, in different ways, with different prizes (or almost no prizes) and different atmospheres.<\/p>\n

Embrace these differences, but don\u2019t be caught flat-footed without asking the critical questions.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the season, try a new ride, and never assume!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Endurance News, September 2011, Ride Managers\u2019 Column, monthly publication of the American Endurance Ride Conference, www.aerc.org, 866-271-2372 One of the remarkable things about endurance rides as they are sanctioned under AERC is that there are a fairly limited number of rules that we must follow in order to conduct a ride. This means […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/enduranceintrospection.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/enduranceintrospection.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/enduranceintrospection.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/enduranceintrospection.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/enduranceintrospection.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/enduranceintrospection.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/enduranceintrospection.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/enduranceintrospection.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/enduranceintrospection.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}