I realize this is probably "old news" but any ride manager who has not reviewed the "enter ride results" link found on the ride managers page of www.aerc.org is really missing out. Russ Humphrey and Mike Maul have performed a great service for all ride managers by developing this program.

I test-ran it last spring on my three Pioneer rides (in January, February and March) and, although it had a few bugs at the time, Mike and Russ corrected them about as fast as I discovered them. It is a simple program that saves a huge amount of time by looking up AERC numbers, calculating scores, and automatically placing the riders in the correct finishing order -- so long as you enter the correct information.

As an example, if you discover you have skipped an entrant, all you need to do is enter the correct information and time and the system automatically places that rider in the correct position and moves all the other riders around to their correct placement.

For those who have not looked at the link, it requires you to enter your login information at www.aerc.org and then go to the "Ride Mgmt" link on the top menu. Scroll down to "Enter Ride Results" and then go to the left side black menu that pops up and hit "Ride Results." All your sanctioned rides will show up. If your ride hasn't happened yet, now would be a good time to experiment with the program by using imaginary results or last year's ride results -- you can experiment with as few as three to 10 entries to gain expertise with the program.

Once you have linked to your ride, a screen will appear with the initial sanctioned information and you will go to "edit" at the bottom of the screen to enter final information such as additional vets. Then hit "update" and link with the first ride distance: limite distance, 50, 100, etc. -- they are all listed.

When the first ride distance screen appears you will need to hit "edit" and then fill in the appropriate boxes that ask "Start Time" and "Total Hold Minutes," then hit "update." The program is ready to automatically compute the ride results.

Now hit "Add Result" and the actual ride results screen will show up. It is important to note that this program requires that each entrant have a "ride number" for the system to work. Here is the simplicity of the system for ride managers -- all you need to enter are four boxes: the rider number, rider's AERC number, the equine's AERC number, and time finished (remember, this is the actual "time of day," not ride time).

Then hit "insert," follow the instructions and repeat the process for each entrant. The program automatically places the riders by their ride time and, as I mentioned earlier, if you accidentally skipped a rider, you can go back and add them as described and the program inserts them in the proper place and corrects all the other info you have previously provided.

Once all the entrants are entered and inserted, go to the "Add BC Evaluation" link and fill in the boxes. Remember, the first box is asking for the rider number, not the AERC membership number. The best condition part of this program identifies the rider number with the rider's assigned AERC number when you entered the actual ride results. It is important to realize this is an exact program and thus requires exact information be provided or a screen will show up telling you what box is incorrect.

After you have inserted all the results, go to the home screen and hit "Results Completed." You can review all the info and the program computes what your AERC fees will be. Hopefully, this short description isn't too confusing because the program is really simple -- all you have to do is follow the instructions.