Offering more opionions here (Roger, you
shamed me into speaking up :)
1)Having a P/R gate into a timed hold, but no vet
check:
I've
been to rides where this was done, seemed like a reasonable idea. Useful if
loops are long, or if conditions are difficult - may give horses a needed
short break to eat and drink. Gives ride managers a little more freedom when
designing courses and working out the logistics of loop length, vet checks,
etc. May be especially useful in areas that are hard to reach by 'normal'
vehicles, or are a long drive from the other vet checks or base camp. I may do
this on my multiday ride this fall, since there will be some long loops and
remote areas.
2)
Requiring a minimum of 2 vetchecks per 50 miles:
I
have a few objections to this. - one, I don't like to see rules passed which
are either hard to enforce or don't necessarily solve the problem. Unless you
specify a minimum loop length, requiring '2 VC's per 50 miles' doesn't
guarantee that the horse will be examined at optimum intervals. A ride manager
could have both VC's with 5 miles of each other, or one VC a mile from camp,
and would satisfy the rule, but not address the issue. One could address this
in the rule by stating a minimum loop length - e.g. 17.5 miles, but it would
be very difficult for ride managers to have to adhere to a minimum loop length
rule. In some areas it would prohibit them from using some trails. Things are
very different between East and West, and it may be easier to do this in the
East, but out here in the West, things are still pretty wild and remote, and
vehicle access to trails is minimal.
Also
- having ridden many multiday rides, where one VC half way through the ride is
the norm, I haven't seen that there is a problem. Even single day rides often
have 20 mile loops - and I haven't seen problems that seemed related to
the loop length. A 15 mile fast/flat loop in hot/humid conditions may be much
more difficult on horses than a 25 mile loop in an arid climate, with natural
obstacles to slow the speed. There are too many other variables
(terrain,weather,competition) which have a greater effect on horse health
during endurance rides, to warrant singling out one variable, especially a
variable which also causes hardship to ride managers.
If a
rule such as the '2 vet check per 50 miles' or '17 mile minimum loop length'
came before the BOD for a vote, at this point I would not support it.
Steph
