PR penalties

[sshaw@pacbell.net]

You will not find reference to this issue in the AERC Rules book.

For anyone's information, it is stated in the Veterinary Guidelines for
Judging AERC Endurance Competitions, on page 20, under Control: Entering
the Veterinary Check, #2. "If pulse recovery parameters are not met at
presentation, there may or may not be an additional time required before
re-presentation is allowed."

Again on page 21, D.. Criteria: 1. Pulse, it states "At "gates," if the
original criterion for pulse is not met at the first requested check
there may be a time penalty of  2 - 10 minutes until the horse can be
officially checked again."

These are at the ride managers or Vets discretion. At the Deadman 50 we
feel that the 30 miles is a training ride and that we wanted this group
to practice taking PR's. They were told ahead of time to practice and
were told again at the pre ride meeting. We offered to teach anyone
after that meeting and also supplied stethoscopes at the vet check.

I don't know of anyone who was assessed a time penalty and my PR staff
said that everyone worked at it seriously. That's great.

As a ride manager I strongly feel that the PR staff should be checking
that the pulse is down, NOT telling riders when their horse is finally
down. Riders should know how to take their horse's pulses. Knowing how
quickly or not the horse recovered is important to knowing what is going
on with your horse. For those that seem to not be able find it on that
particular day or ride, they can always get a crew or another rider to
help them.

To me personally, it is like saddling your own horse....

Steve Shaw