When a person decides to take the plunge to become a ride manager, he has many decisions to make. Some are obvious such as ride location, trail layout, and obtaining ride help, but other things are not so obvious:

How much will the ride cost to host?

What will you charge for your ride entry fees?

How much will you spend on awards?

Will you plan a meal?

Will everyone to pre-enter and pre-pay?

You need to be balancing your expenses compared to your ride fees because a ride cannot continue if the ride manager is constantly supplementing the ride.

Entry fees

Some ride managers require your entire ride entry fees be paid in advance; others only require a deposit. There are many reasons some ride managers require fees in advance. Generally they need to know how many riders are coming in order:

to have a sufficient number of vets

to have sufficient completion awards

to limit the number of entrants as space or land management require

to insure good turnout even if the weather would turn bad

to give the ride manager start-up money before the ride date.

Refunds

While prepaying entry fees should not pose much of a problem to riders, when it comes to refunds, it can become a nightmare if your ride flyer doesn't spell out the refund policy. The riders never know for certain if their horse will be able to compete on a particular day, since things don't always go as planned when dealing with horses. Because of this, some ride managers try to give partial refunds or even full refunds; others only give full refunds when a horse doesn't pass the initial vetting procedure.

As a ride manager you need to have your refund policy written out on your ride flyer/entry, since riders cannot know your policy if it is not written. If you do not write out your refund policy riders will assume you will be giving a full refund if they don't show. This can cause some very hard feelings that could easily be avoided.

Awards

How do your ride entry fees compare to the awards and amenities that you offer? With the rising cost in fuel prices, riders are more cost-conscious than ever. Some rides choose to keep their fees low but in order to do this they may need to drop many of the amenities that riders have come to love -- meals or special awards. Some rides have more expensive ride fees, going for luxury with super nice awards, hot showers, electricity, water, and meals, but have added camping fees that sometimes are not included in the ride fees. As long as you make the riders aware of these added fees in your entry form, you will get no complaints.

The riders may chose a luxury ride or two a year and then go for the more economical ride to balance out their ride budget for the rest of the year. It is nice in this sport we offer and appreciate both types of rides.

All the fees a ride can incur can be overwhelming. There are fees to be paid to AERC of $4 per rider and another fee of $1 per rider for drug testing, then normally permit fees with the land management, top 10 awards in each distance, top weight division awards, veterinarian fees and lodging, food and drinks for all the ride help -- the list seems to be never-ending.

Whatever ride managers decide to charge for ride fees, they must take into consideration all these variables.

If you are not using the head veterinarian who was listed in your original ride sanctioning request, you must notify the office of the new head vet. A month before your ride the head veterinarian receives a packet from the office. If you have changed that person the office needs to send the new vet the packet, so please be sure and notify the office in time that they will be able to get it to the correct ride veterinarian. Also be sure to read your entire ride manager packet when you receive it as these are always being updated.