Our membership is divided up into nine regions -- up from eight a few years ago when the Southwest was split into Pacific Southwest and Southwest. AERC membership is about 5,800 now with the possibility of reaching 6,000 this year for the first time.

The two growing areas of AERC rider interest are LDs and multidays. For the purpose of this column, multidays are three or more days together and don't include two-day 100s. The multiday rides enable members to see an area in depth, socialize after the day's ride, reduce average trailering time to rides, have a "historical theme," and provide a different riding/social environment than the more typical one-day ride. It's a nice way to take a vacation and spend it riding with your horse(s) and friends.

Themes include riding portions of the Pony Express Trail, the Oregon Trail, from shore to shore in the Great Lakes region, the Applegate/Lassen Trail (originally called the Southern Road to Oregon), North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Outlaw Trail (Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch), exploring Death Valley, and many others.

These types of rides have grown significantly in popularity in the past few years. In 1996, there were only 11. In our last full riding season (2002), there were 21 multiday rides. In 1996, multidays were only 9.3% of the total rider entries. In 2002, this has grown to 18.3% of total rider entries. Almost one in five rider entries are multiday.

Overall rider entries have grown so that the overall increase in multiday rides is 147% rather than the doubling from 9% to 18% would show. For comparison, 100 mile rides in the same period are down 35% and LDs are up 45%.

Most multiday rides occur in the West, Southwest, and Pacific Southwest. In the past, there were some multidays in the east regions but they have dwindled in number. Whether this is related to the difficulty of finding large enough areas with trails for 250 miles of riding in five days, the more humid weather conditions, or the smaller rider base to draw on isn't clear. The Shore-to-Shore Ride in Michigan, where the horses can dip in the waters of Lake Huron at Oscoda and finish in Lake Michigan at Empire, was the only large eastern ride in 2002.

Multiday rides in the west typically have one vet check during each day's ride. Often the terrain makes it difficult to get a vet crew and supplies to two vet checks within the time riders can reach them. While this is less than the typical one-day ride with two to three vet checks, riders know this and ride accordingly. Statistics on horses requiring treatment indicate that there are few problems with only one check during the day, at least in the less humid West/Southwest environment. The Michigan ride has three checks during each day.

Some multidays are point-to-point requiring moving camp each day and others loop back into a central camp each day. Riders may bring several horses for the ride or try to ride the full distance on the same equine.

"Pioneer" rides, where finishing all the days on the same horse provides points toward the Pioneer award, results in slow starts in the morning where riders take an "after you" attitude while getting out on the trail. This can make riders much more careful in how they view each day with respect to their horses. Often numbers are not used to identify horses because the vets quickly get to know each horse. Your vet-in for the next day is the completion check the night before with just a trot-by in the morning before starting. Multiday rides are often much more informal than one-day events.

On the longer rides, about a third of the riders finish all five days on the same horse. Total five-day ride times can go from 28 hours to almost 50 hours with an overall best time award and a best condition. It's certainly a real test of endurance to complete all five days with one horse that's still fit to continue at the end.

The opportunity to get to know other riders is much greater at multidays. Centrally located campsites may have a restaurant available for meals and one ride, the Death Valley Encounter, finishes with a New Year's Eve party. I've even seen tables with checkered tablecloths and wine glasses set up outside a trailer on a multiday ride.

Scheduling the multiday rides is sometimes a problem for the AERC board of directors as the format has become more popular. All rides of three days and 155 miles or more require special approval by the board for the first two years. Due to the potentially limited number of riders who can attend, scheduling rides too close to each other by date or distance can make it difficult for a ride to succeed. At the moment, the board is trying to accommodate new rides being added without causing financial hardship for the ride managers sponsoring them.

Multiday rides with a historical theme are a fast-growing part of our sport. They are a great way to take a vacation, get to know other riders in our sport, and provide a real test of endurance for you and your horse. I'm going to more of them in the future and hope to see you there.