Greetings. Spring is in the air and thoughts of some good endurance riding are filling everyone's head. Get the calendar out and plan your season. You have plenty of choices. Try something new this year. Go for a national or regional event that interests you, do that multiday ride you have always wanted to do, pick out one of the series rides and go for the gold, do that first 50 or 100 miler you have been preparing for, get entered in the AERC National Championship in Nevada, get qualified for Pan Am, and/or just do more miles this year than last year. In other words, ride.

This issue of Endurance News has the schedule for the first phase of the Equine Gastric Ulcer Incidence study that is being conducted. Take a look at it and see if it fits your schedule and your desire to participate and sign up. This phase will look at over 300 horses and one of them should be yours.

This will be my last President's Message but not the last you will hear from me. I plan to spend my time and efforts this year and the next few years on promoting research and education in AERC. Our organization has climbed out of the near-danger it was in and has evolved into a very sound and prosperous organization. It is time that AERC dedicated itself to increasing its and your knowledge concerning the welfare of the horse and ways to improve the sport in general.

The next few years should yield numerous research projects and educational forums that can only be gained through diligent effort on the part of the leaders of AERC and the spending of funds where they will gain the most. If this does not happen it will only be because of complacency and unwillingness to reach out. If you agree with my thoughts on the situation then step forward and volunteer to help and, most of all, call or write your directors and tell them to go forward.

Very good news for endurance

While sitting here pounding out these words, I received two very good pieces of news that I will share with you. By the time you see this both of these things will be history and while becoming history they will help our sport and our horses.

First, and I quote, "A new era for equestrian sports began on Saturday, February 1, 2003, when the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Membership and Credentials Committee received a plan jointly proposed by USA Equestrian (USAE) and the United States Equestrian Team (USET) to create a new NGB for the sport incorporating the strengths of each organization. The joint agreement resolves the question of governance of the sport and ends an agonizing period of dispute with a solution that all parties heartily endorse."

Second was my copy of the message being taken to a very important and powerful gathering of world endurance representatives being held in Paris. That message contains these words: "We are here representing not only the USA but various countries from around the world. More importantly, we stand here on behalf of the horses who rely upon us to make this a better sport."

And "one thing unites us as American endurance riders and that is this: We win by completing an endurance track on a healthy horse. In truth, that is the standard for everyone, or should be."

And "the ability of a rider to safely compete a horse, event after event and year after year, is how both great riders and great horses are judged in the USA."

And as a closing statement: "We have an opportunity to build that endurance sport, treating our horses as partners and not as disposable commodities. We must never forget that the welfare of horses is first. Now we have that opportunity." I believe that these words will not fall on deaf ears and the proven standards of endurance as we know it will prevail.

Looking forward

I look forward to the future of AERC and endurance as a sport and challenge you and your directors to take the necessary steps and sometimes necessary risk to propel our sport, not in a direction of grandiosity and splendor, but in a direction of excellence and accomplishment, while at the same time keeping the welfare of the horse at the top of the list. This is what those that came before us envisioned and it is up to us to work for that end. When self-importance, media coverage and speed records take the lead then the welfare of the horse will suffer.

I believe that this sport exist equally on all levels, from the once a year limited distance rider to the world champion. It is that way because of one thing and that is we have always kept safety, an even playing field and horse welfare as the governing factors. I want to see AERC continue down the path it is on and resist any changes that will take us from that path.

Visions of endurance as an Olympic sport are very ambitious and exciting but I fear that road will only topple endurance as a grass roots sport. The eyes of the world are already watching us so we must make sure what they see is pleasing.

Until we meet again, at a ride or wherever, thank your horse and the people that came before us, for this wonderful experience.