Re: RC: Re: Tevis

[Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>]

At 09:08 AM 5/24/00 -0600, Sandy wrote:
> There's a video of all the riders going over
> Cougar rock...I can;t remember
> what year it was made but it is very enlightening....The front runners
> sail
> over the rock like it was just a bump in the trail...you can see a
> steady
> decline in the ability of horse and rider to negotiate the obstacle as
> it
> gets further and further to the back of the pack...until by the last
> 30
> riders, or so, almost everybody has trouble getting over
> it....

1994.  We showed that video at the AERC booth at Scottsdale this
past February.  I looked at it easily hundreds of times! 
Extremely valuable info - not because it's Cougar Rock specifically but
because it's an obstacle that presents a challenge, and you can tell
about the horse's shape from the challenge.  I'd love to see another
video like that of any comparable obstacle.

Years ago we worked as  vet secs at a NATRC ride - I believe Bob
Young was one vet & I forget the other.  But a log obstacle was
placed at the top of a long hard climb.  When we questioned why this
setup was done that way (seemed cruel & unusual punishment to me)
whichever of the two vets replied that he didn't care how the rider chose
to deal with the obstacle, but in fact he could tell everything about the
horse's condition by how the horse dealt  with it.  

Just so with the Cougar Rock video.  I finally wrote down each
horse's number & a prediction of completion based on how they took
the Rock.  I haven't checked the results yet, but I will.... 
Lif

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