Dear Green Beans, I generally avoid posting political/controversial topics here, especially when they have to do with internal AERC debates since thats better left to the AERC page. However, I feel that this issue affects all Green Beans directly and want to make sure that you have the opportunity to voice your opinion. In case you are not aware, AERC changed their records this week so that horse and rider records are only available to AERC members. From what I understand, this was a decision made over a year ago and recently upheld and was motivated by idea that this would increase the value of AERC membership and therefore gain us more members. I was not aware of this until after the change was made and wholeheartedly disagree with this decision. Below, you will find my response to this change as posted in the AERC Facebook page and I will be sending it to ALL of the regional directors as I feel a responsibility to all of you, no matter your region. I do not assume that you agree with me, but would love yo hear your thoughts and also request that you send those thoughts to your own regional director. You can find them here: aerc.org/Membership_Bod_Board.aspx#regdirectors Sincerely, Jillane, still a fellow Green Bean in this sport My thoughts as posted on the AERC page: Coming from the Green Bean perspective, I strongly agree that the way to get new riders and new members is to MENTOR them into the sport. To be honest, I didnt join and support AERC because of any perks of membership. Rather, I joined because I love this sport and want to ensure that it will continue (especially the particular style of AERC in the face of other forms of endurance found throughout the world), and that is impossible without the member dues. If AERC cut out all the bells and whistles and simply governed endurance so that it could continue as we know it, I would pay my dues. And, I have paid dues for an entirely ride-less season (my second year) and only two rides this year (my third year), and I dont regret it. That being said, I think an integral part of what AERC does is track rider and horse records, which we use for so many reasons as outlined above. Above all, though, I know that many Green Beans rely on the openness of these records as they are MENTORED into endurance (before they ever are sure that endurance is for them) to check the qualifications and experience of those that are acting as mentors. All of us have heard the experienced endurance rider spout off advice and offer well-intentioned help only to come to find that that person has only done a few LDs. How much good can be done by shutting these potential future endurance riders out of the records to strong-arm them into joining? I personally dont think its much. On the flip side, how much harm can be done by allowing these so-called mentors go out and teach new riders all about endurance when they really dont have the experience to back it up? I can tell you that Ive been on the wrong end of that deal where the first mentor I found talked like she knew all about endurance and got me to spend upwards of $1000 on tack and other items in addition to following some ill-advised conditioning practices, only to find out shed never even done an actual ride in the first place! I didnt think to check her AERC record (which didnt exist) until later, and I regularly recommend that all prospective endurance riders do the same with anyone they might consider a mentor or take advice from. I am deeply saddened that I can no longer recommend that Green Beans to our sport to check rider histories as they are learning whether or not this is the sport for them and I expect that many can (and will) be turned off by a poor mentor without ever realizing that that mentors version of endurance is one that lacks true experience. As for those that say that these people can just ask an endurance rider to check histories, I for one do not want to be the one to publicly blow the whistle on these riders - those conversations turn nasty very quickly and we can lose whole groups of Green Beans and prospective riders with a single conversation where one Green Bean gives well-intended but poor advice, an AERC member calls them out on it by letting others know that that person does not have the record to back up that advice (or worse, that a rider with a long AERC record that could be interpreted badly), and then the conversation disintegrates into a storm of negativity that we simply cannot afford when trying to be as inviting as possible. It seems to me that other sports with closed information also have dedicated barns, specialized instructors, and less risk of things going horribly wrong and putting the horse at risk than we do with new people running their horses into the ground and leaving the sport either because it was their horse or a horse they saw that did not cope well. We NEED qualified mentors before any joining ever occurs - and this change will negatively affect any sort of mentor program that we hope to have either formally or informally.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 18:47:30 +0000
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