Storms and wildfires and other forces of Mother Nature have left some of our ride managers in quite a dilemma. More rides than usual have had to be cancelled during the 2006 ride season.

Ride managers have invested a lot mentally, physically and financially in their ride and must be prepared to make a decision quickly if their ride is to be rescheduled to another date. AERC has policies making it possible to resanction the ride without requiring it to go through the entire sanctioning procedure again. A ride manager can always request an emergency one-day postponement from their AERC director but that is not always viable as some conditions need more than a day's postponement.

In the Midwest Region, two rides were recently rescheduled due to extreme weather conditions on the same weekend. Sarah Maass, the ride manager for the Ride for Breast Cancer and Colic Research, was notified on Thursday, September 21, by the land managers that the ride could not take place on Saturday, September 23, due to trails being extremely wet and more rain predicted. With less than two days' notice, the quick-thinking ride manager was able to telephone all the pre-entered riders. She then followed the procedures in getting her ride quickly rescheduled for October 8.

Steve Cummings, ride manager of the Cave Country Canter, watched the forecast for September 23 and 24 carefully. Rain had been predicted for the Friday and Saturday with Sunday being forecast as delightfully sunny. Despite the ominous forecast, quite a few riders pulled their horse trailers into the Southern Indiana campground, hoping for the best.

It rained pretty much all day on Friday and during the night the skies really opened up, dumping approximately 10 inches of rain. The lightning lit the night up so much that you could observe the horses with their heads touching the ground, trying to avoid the driving rain. By the early morning it was still raining but only lightly.

The ride management team watched the news on the television and could not believe what they saw. The reporters were calling it the Flood of 2006. The small town just nine miles from the ride site had shelters open for the people who had been flooded out of their homes during the night.

Two major interstates were closed less than 20 miles from the ride site, and eight people had drowned. Steve went to the head veterinarian, Kevin Sloan, and asked for his opinion of possibly canceling the ride. After conferring with AERC-certified veterinarian Otis Schmitt, the decision was made to cancel the ride and reschedule it for the middle of November. (The Cave Country Canter was granted an emergency rescheduled date for November 11 and 12.)

Dr. Schmitt remarked that anyone would be crazy to go out on the trails that day and was glad management had the sense to know when to throw in the towel.

A couple of riders saddled their horses and went out to take trail markers down on one of the higher trails but got only a few hundred yards before coming back and reporting that the first creek crossing was in danger of being impassable.

To cancel a ride is a very hard decision to make -- even more so when the riders have spent their time, effort and money to drive to the ride site. The ride management refunded all fees, including camping fees. Some generous riders donated their fees to help with expenses.

Ride managers do not cancel rides except in extreme and severe situations, knowing endurance riders are willing to ride in almost any type of weather once they are at the ride site. Both Sarah and Steve were first-time ride managers and did remarkable jobs in very trying situations.

Emergency ride date change procedures

-- The ride manager immediately notifies the AERC office, requesting that a notice be placed on the website that the ride has been cancelled. The posting can note that the ride manager is in the process of requesting a new ride date.

-- The ride manager needs to talk with the land managers and request a date change or new permit for the ride.

-- The ride manager needs to call their AERC sanctioning director to inform him or her what has occurred and to request a particular date.

-- If the date is available, the sanctioning director would call the president of AERC who will call for an emergency executive meeting where the Executive Committee would vote on the date.

-- The ride manager would be informed by the sanctioning director of the decision.