I'm in the SE and trying to pick my first LD, I
think the horse is ready and we *finally* have at least one saddle that fits.
So, I started looking at rides here and ride results for the past 5 years, as I
don't want to go to a reallyy big ride for my first. I noticed that many of the
same *people* were placing first in the LDs with 2 - 3 hour times, but the
horses changed from year to year. So, that got me interested and I started
looking at the horse and rider histories. It seemed like the ones running the
raelly fast LDs (and somewhat the fast 50's) kept horses a year or two and then
they're no other AERC records. My assumtion was they were lame, that's just an
uneducated guess.
As a newbie on a first time ride it scares me to go
out there and try to ride the 25, I don't have any idea my horse will handle a
ton of riders going a 10 - 13 MPH pace if we're doing a 5 - 8 mph pace. I'm
thinking about just trying a 50 in the spring, It really intimidates me to go
try to ride a ride like that. Seems like alot of the really fast 25s had more
pulls than the 50s and/or 100s that were run on the same day, and it seems like
the times in the last three years are faster than they were in 90 - 93, figured
I'd pick cooresponding years to compare.
Are there horses out there running fast LDs and
competing more than 1 or 2 years?
Before we get all whipped out of shape over this - does anyone
know how many what the precentage of horses in LD are really 4 years old? From
what I see in the SE region its probably pretty small in which case this whole
"speed and 4 yo" is nothing but a red herring hot
button.
If
AERC ride managers use the BC form as it is now, they will have to use SPEED
and WEIGHT as a factor. 4 year olds will be raced, horses will
be hurt more often, and riders will go like hell. Now if you wish to
submit to the committee that met at the convention and try again to resolve
the issue of LD BC have at it. BUT time cannot be factor.
You must devise an overall vet parameter score that will take into
consideration the horses age, experience and miles. LD are training
rides. ASK anyone with 10,000+ miles. And they deserve the right
to be heard. If you have not had a horse on an IV line it is difficult
to fathom the guilt. Whether you went fast or not. So to
reiterate devise a BC form that uses all the vet parameters from all the vet
checks, score them and eliminate time from the equation and maybe I will
whistle a new tune.
Donna
