Re:overweight an issue?

[wsabg@t-online.de (Wolfgang Schwingenheuer)]

Susan Garlinghouse wrote:

> Wolfgang, all I can do is report my own findings, which had much better
> control and methodology.
>
> And I'm not going to argue *again* that my study says "weight makes no
> difference".  My head hurts from banging it against the wall.
>
> Susan G

Hi,

sorry for stepping in late, but I had to read all the previous post. Then I have
to understand - a fact which is difficult enough for native english speaking
Ridecampers, as some pointed out. So for me as a "have to learn that
language"-people it is even more difficult. I have to use my dictionary as well
as the nice Babylon-online-translator. Ok, please forgive me for any
misunderstandings or misinterpretation because of that ;-)

Is "head banging" still popular in the US??? We stopped it some decades ago, no
more walls left (pig-headed German...).

Susan, you say that you "report your own findings, which had much better control
and methodology". How do you know? You referred to a study of about 600 horses,
being ridden over the same track (Tevis) in two(?) years. Sorry, but don't you
confess that a study, tracked over 15 years,with a total of more than 12.000
entries, of horses being ridden under all conditions, with every detail of the
rider and the horse plus all veterinary details is more significant than your
study??? Ok, this study is published in 1990, with entries from1975 to 1989. But
I am sure that the database has grown since then, with now even more relevant
data. Maybe one of our South African Ridecamper can tell us about this (does
anybody have an email-adress of Dr. Loukie Viljoen???).
What is said in this study is that under all the conditions they have tracked, a
rider with more than 105 kg has virtually no chance of winning. The overall
performance, shown by the average speed, decreases with an increasing weight.
For the field of 6408 entries in the range of 73 - 125 kg, there was a drop of 1
km/h for every 17.33 kg. The same for the average speed of the winner, but here
a drop of 1 km/h for every 13.68 kg.
So let's take two horses, both equally fit and prepared for a major event (100
miles/160 km). One horse is ridden by a girl, barely 75 kg (with some additional
weight to meet this FEI criterium), one ridden by a young man, having 87 kg
including his tack (this would be a rider of about 75 kg plus saddle, bridle
etc.). Both riders go for a win, trying to perform best. The girl won that race
with an average speed of 15 km/h (9.3 miles/h). From looking at the mentioned
statistics, the young man would finish with 14 km/h (8.7 miles/h). This is a
recalculated difference in the finishing time of more than 30 minutes! This is
what I noticed at those major events (FEI rides or equal national rides). The
riders in front are very, very often those thin "jockey-types". The WEC-preride
was won by Hassan bin Ali - I would assume him to have 65 kg without equipment.
At a CEI last weekend here in Germany, the winner was a young girl with a total
of 78 kg (riding in a heavy western-sytle saddle), followed by another girl of
exact 75 kg, followed by three junior rider from Belgium (all the senior rider -
heavier!!! - were eliminated due to lameness or metabolic probs). The last
finisher was a man from Portugal, huge and heavy, with about 4 hours difference
to the winner. Now take a look at all the previous World Champions. All were
female US-rider - Becky Hart and the Kanavys have to add a lot of kilos to their
equipment, for sure. Lucky chance??? Or simply better "confirmation"??? The
European Champion of 1991 was a heavyweight, but he compensated this by running
alongside the horse for long stretches of the course.
What one can see in the lineup at a price-giving is an increase of total rider
weight, quite often having the lightest in front and the heavier behind him/her.

There may be variations from this, agreed. There may be one special ride having
a great variation from this - even in the SA-statistic there is one winner with
a weight of 113 kg (but is not documented if he was the only finisher in that
special ride). A newer study from SA would also be appreciated, as the riding
speeds have increased in the last years.

Ok, this are my simple thoughts, having read the statistics and seen many rides.
The discussion can go on...

Wolfgang
Germany