Hi, y'all! I'm generally a nice, quiet lurker on here. Make no waves, stay out of the messes, and all that.
But...I've just been privately berated for spewing my view that there really oughta be prize money available for the Endurance crowd. So...I'll toss my views up for public discussion. Here they are, have at it, no holds barred. Maybe I'll even answer one or two of you. I'm NOT an Endurace guy. I don't ride Arabians. I do cows. On Quarter Horses and Paints. AND...I compete in Pennings, Poles, Barrels, a tad of Reining, and once in a great while, Reined Cow Horse. I compete for the sport of it, but I really like it when I get to go to the pay window. I don't mind an occasional hefty entrance fee when the payback is over 70%. Shoot...I don't mind a small entrance fee when the payback's over 70%, either. Especially when there's a large wad of competitors. More for me! If I win. And THERE, Ladies and Gentlemen, IS the crux of the matter: "IF I WIN." Which brings up the question..."What will I DO to insure a win?" Y'all (no offense, Howard) appear to have a difficulty with that one. It is relatively easy. Sort of. Yes, there IS a problem with the "win-at-any-cost" crowd. No doubt. Y'know, we have that problem in OUR sports, too, but wiser heads than mine seem to have arrived at a reasonable solution for that. It's called CLASSES. Divisions of skill-level and expertise. Ya don't make the money until ya got the skill. Neat, huh? Not counting the un-sanctioned events (which ARE around, if ya know where to look), the Newbies start out in Green Horse, Green Rider; or Green Horse; or Green Rider. Green meaning inexperienced--either horse, rider, or both. There is NO prize money for those classes. The participants are learning, and ya don't get paid for learning. BUT...there's an incentive! Actually, SEVERAL incentives: if you advance your skills and expertise, you get to advance to a higher level of the sport, and run with more experienced, but not pro, nor upper-level amateurs. You can't play in the Open classes, nor the Non-Pro classes. You get to play in the Amateur classes, and if you win, you might get your entry fee back, plus maybe $20/50 bucks, too. At least it'll pay for yer gas. As you advance in skill level, you get to compete against tougher and tougher competition, and ya get to win more money. You will NOT find yahoos nor abusers in the mid to upper levels of our sports. They are quite serious Horsemen in every sense of the word. Now here's the good part. The Sanctioning Body has complete control of this whole thing. No USET, no USAE, no none of that. If they wanna piece of it, they can apply for a co-sanctioning LICENSE, and PAY for it! On a PER EVENT basis. That oughta settle their hash right quickly. AND...y'all got a money-machine started with this gig, and ya gotta be sensible as to what y'all do with it. Try this on fer size...Since all Green Classes don't get prize money, and there's always gonna be a whole lot more of them than any other class, their entry fees go to two places: 1) To cover the cost of their events and 2) The leftover shall be placed into the General Prize Fund for disbursement to the Prize-classes. The entry fees increase, as well, with the level of expertise. Why YES--of COURSE you pay more to win more! Duh! Now, once this little deal gets going, you don't suppose that great enormous wads of manufacturers of Horse Stuff would want their name in front of these riders, do ya? OF COURSE they do! Gee. That costs money! THEIR money. It's called ADVERTISING RIGHTS, and SPONSORSHIP RIGHTS. And it's on a nicely sliding scale designed to fatten the prize pots AND further the Sanctioning Body's ability to grow the sport. AND...you get the added plus of nicely eliminating the horse-killers in the Green Classes, 'cause if you abuse yer horse, you sure as shootin' aren't gonna advance to another higher class, are ya? Of course not. See? It's self-limiting! AND...there's lots and lots and lots of people who would just LOVE to be able to DO something with their horses! A chance to learn more, to make new friends, to ACHIEVE something with their horses. Gee! What on earth could that BE??? Could it be The Greatest Timed Events In The World? Yup. Could be! If y'all do it right, it surely could be. Lissen...I watched the National Reined Cow Horse Association come up from a little, dusty, basically one-state event to international prominence in FIVE YEARS! How? Just like the above. And they don't gots no horse-killers in there, either. Y'all can do it. If'n you want to. and it'll work, too. Karl Dixie Midnight No-Sweat vent pads http://www.dixiemidnight.nv.switchboard.com Come see us! _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
