When I was in high school I knew everything. I could save the world all by myself. When I graduated from veterinary school I could diagnose a lameness from 50 feet away. I did not even need to touch the horse or speak to the owner to know the best treatment.

I have matured a bit. I now know that I need help from many people to change the world. I now know that I need all the information I can get to come up with a good guess as to the cause of a lameness.

AERC is maturing also. Its history is not totally analogous, but it is similar. A couple decades ago AERC felt it could tell the world how endurance should be done, but without asking for or getting the support of the rest of the world. AERC felt it could encourage trails locally and nationally all by itself without regard for other organizations.

Many years ago AERC veterinarians felt that they knew best and therefore they should preemptively pull horses for the horse's own welfare even before any noticeable lameness or injury. The AERC board of directors used to pass a new rule at one meeting, announce it to the membership, and then retract the rule at the next board meeting. Fortunately, things have improved since then.

AERC is now working with USEF and FEI to encourage the implementation around the world of what AERC has learned about horse welfare and the safe and fair running of endurance rides. No longer do we say, "We are AERC. You know where to find us." Now we are saying, "Let us work with you as partners for the common good of all horses and endurance riders worldwide." By working with all nations we have improved the sport of endurance, the horses' welfare, and much more.

On a national and regional level, AERC is now partnering with the Bureau of Land Management and other federal land agencies to ensure the continued availability of trails for use by endurance riders. AERC is working with not only the local rangers and representatives but also the very highest officials in each agency to ensure a mutually beneficial cooperative approach to trails use, management, and creation. We need their help, and they need our help. Working with these agencies has already been rewarding to AERC and endurance.

On a much more personal level, nearly every AERC veterinarian is now working with the riders as partners; not as someone who is there as an impediment to the riders' ability to complete, but as a partner in trying to get the horse through the ride as safely as possible. While the rider may sometimes get DIMR ("distance induced mental retardation"), the vet only sees the horse for a few minutes each ride. It takes a partnership of rider and vet to get every horse through the ride safely.

The AERC board has also matured in that they are much less frequently reversing their decisions at the following board meeting. They have not conducted a witch hunt in quite some years and they are now usually basing their decisions on basic facts rather than relying on what they saw on television or read on some email list. The board is really striving to publish in Endurance News all of the rule changes which will be deliberated by the board at the coming meetings.

Maturing is a gradual process that never seems to happen quickly enough. In some places we are doing very well in our maturation; in others we seem to lag far behind. At whatever speed, it is with one step at a time that we are improving. Thank you for your patience with this process; thank you for being a part of this change, and thank you for helping guide AERC towards the future. To finish is to win.