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Re: Re: Tevis



I think it not only tells of the horses condition...but just as important, the riders ability and both horse and riders confidence in themselves and each other...
  
----- Original Message -----
From: Lif Strand
To: Ridecamp
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2000 11:06 PM
Subject: RC: Re: Tevis

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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