I was recently at a prestigious international ride where some of the riders and crews were doing everything they could do to gain an advantage in the ride over other riders. Some of their tactics were within the rules while others were not.

I am very happy to report that, as far as I could tell, all the AERC members were following the rules to the letter of the law, as usual. The violations that were taking place by a handful of people were things like leaving the vet checks a few seconds early, crewing in places that no crewing was allowed and other little things that really didn't seem to amount to much of anything.

The rules were being followed by most of the riders but apparently a few felt the rules were not made for them. These people may not believe they were cheating -- they were not cutting the trail or doing anything that blatant -- but it was definitely not the same rules everyone else were playing by.

Why would anyone feel they needed to disobey any of the rules if they truly felt they had the best horse on that particular day or if they felt they were a better rider strategically than the rest of the field?

I once was given a book titled something like, "Life is not always fair, if it were the rider would carry the horse half of the time." Of course we know that life is not always fair, but when it comes to endurance riding our rules work to keep us all on a level playing field and keep things as fair as possible.

For the most part our rules serve us well. When AERC was first formed we had only six rules but it has been necessary to add new rules as time goes by. Seems like most the time we have added a new rule it has been because one person finds a way to bend a current rule, so then another one had to be written.

Our rule book is still fairly small and easy to follow and most endurance riders hope that it will remain so. There are always a few who will try to stretch, bend or even break the rules. All riders, ride managers and control judges need to be well acquainted with the rules and should be willing to intervene when they see a violation.

The ride manager tries to make sure all the rules are obeyed during their ride but when they can't come to a consensus the only recourse may be for someone to file a protest. When filing a protest, you need to list the rule that has been violated. Sometimes proving a rule violation is tough to do as so often there are no witnesses or just one rider's word against another. This is especially true if you feel a rider has cut off some trail.

AERC rides and riders, for the most part, function on the honor system as it is impossible to have spotters or stewards everywhere on the trail. There are ways people who can figure out where to make the trail shorter or other unfair things to gain advantages. Some are trying to win while others are trying just trying to complete and some may be trying to reach a mileage plateau.

The sport of endurance riding is built around riding the same miles, in the same order, getting through the vet checks in the same manner. When an endurance rider refuses to follow the rules, who are they cheating?

AERC keeps records of all the miles that members and horses obtain. What do these records mean for a cheating person? Absolutely nothing! When riders cheat, they are cheating themselves more than anyone else.

Even though life is not always fair, and people don't always do the right thing, it is great to see most endurance riders are very honorable and would not take advantage of our rules even if they thought they could get away with it.

There is not much glory in endurance riding; we ride for our own satisfaction and our own goals. We can't be worrying about things that we cannot change. We sure can't make people grow a conscience if they are the type who want to compete at all costs.

The one thing that you can do is always strive to take the high road. By doing this, you will know that you earned every mile that you and your horse have achieved in AERC's mileage program. That way, you can be proud of all of your accomplishments.

New members: join online by clicking here or phone the office toll-free, 866-271-2372.

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How far will you ride this year? Join AERC and we'll help you count the miles!