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  • From: Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>
  • To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [MSAR] Mounted orienteering
  • Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 15:19:22 -0600

Planning ahead for 2006, I have been thinking about the pros
and cons of various styles of orienteering.

Re mounted orienteering in the US, there are two main styles,
per National Association of Competitive Mounted Orienteering
(NACMO, http://www.nacmo.org/index.tpl) and United States
Orienteering Federation (USOF, http://www.us.orienteering.org).

I belong to New Mexico Orienteers, an affiliate of USOF, and
with them I have been a course designer (setter) and vetter,
and a meet director. USOF's orienteering is about reading a
map and navigating the terrain; if a participant must search,
then either the participant's map reading skills or terrain
navigating skills are not up to the course, or the course has
an error (eg, map location does not match physical location,
base map has an error, or the course as designed is too hard
for its designated level of difficulty). Controls (windsocks)
are not hidden. They are exactly where the map shows them to
be, and a clue sheet identifies a specific feature shown on
the map that is at the control location. So the control can
be hung on a tree beside a large rock, but trees are not on
the map so the tree cannot be mentioned as a clue; the rock
can be mentioned, but only if it is shown on the map; if the
rock is not on the map, and there is no other mapped feature
at that location on the map, the control cannot be hung there.
This means that USOF style orienteering requires a custom map.
It has scale 1:10,000, is based on a standard topographic map,
and has added annotations of physical features such as cliffs
and small cuts in streambanks, large rocks, vegetation types,
etc.

NACMO, on the other hand, is all about *searching*: controls
(paper plates, called "objectives") are deliberately hidden.
There are at least 3 other described "clues" in the vicinity
but these too are not shown on the map. The map can be a raw
topo map without special additions; a circle is drawn on the
map, 3/4 mile in radius. Somewhere inside the circle are the
objective and clues. So NACMO does not require a custom map.

I have personal experience only with USOF's style of O meet;
does anyone here have personal experience with both USOF and
NACMO style O meets?

Thanks in advance,

Una Smith
New Mexico




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