>>We don't crash horses in LD's. We very seldom send a horse to a vet
hospital on live support from an LD. I only know of two cases in 12 years I've
been around this sport that an LD horse has ended up first on life support and
then being transported to a vet hospital when the vets got worried.
Really? As I've said often I'm just a dumb kid with
a sweet horse... I don't know anythign compared to you guys. I've got arena
experience, but it doesn't hold true to endurance. I can tell you how to set up
a nice hunter course, but can't tell you jack about what will crash a horse.
That's why I'm here, to learn before I take Star out there. It's not worth
getting my horse hurt to compete!
>>At a recent 100 in the US we had one
8 out of 50 (that's about one in 7) horses entered hooked up to bags on life
support. The treatment vet was scrambling to find enough fluids and one
had to be sent off to a vet hospital after stabilized.
What ride? Why? Was it conditions? Speed? Why that
many at that ride? I don't remember seeing a huge number of metabolic pulls in
the 50's and 100's vs the LDs when I looked at the ride results the percentages
didn't look all that different. I really enjoyed the thread earlier in the year
initiated by Stagg and Jim (wasn't it?) on preventing treatment at rides, I felt
like I learned alot.
How about the Tevis a few years ago? That's what bothers me.
Why is the Tevis so bad for pulls? Terrain? Heat?
Because it's an elitist ride and everybody wants to do their best at the cost of
the horse?
Here's a handfull of Tevis Statistics since 1985,
kind of blew my too fast theories out of the water... Fastest Tevis 1989 @
12:48, completion rate @ 56.5%, Slowest Tevis @ 15:56, completion @ 42.8%,
Highest Completion @ 65.8% 1997, 1995, 1986, Lowest Completion rate @ 40.4% in
2001. Average time is 14:28, completion @ 53.17% In 1997 & 1995 the winning
time was 13:56, 1986 it was 13.58, so statistically if you win in 13:56 - 13:58
there will be higher completions. Lowest completion rates are the higher ride
times. Why?
And for comparison purposes I also checked the OD
statistics, Fastest OD @ 12:15, completion @ 73.6 in 1989, slowest 17:06 in
1986, completion @ 55.5, Highest Completion rate @ 73.6, ride time 12:15 in
1989, Lowest completion @ 24.3, ride time @ 15:43 in 1995, average is 54.4%
completion, 14:11 ride time. Maybe the completion percentages on the Tevis
aren't that bad?
Okay, now I'm hooked... I'm going to look up the
weather on the days of each of these races and see how that affected it, I
should have that data up on my homepage this weekend. Why are completion rates
higher the faster years?
I did some more research into ride completion rates
tonight, just checked every December 2002 Ride. Why do multi days have such a
high completion? By percentage Around The Mountain had a 92% completion rate in
all 5 days, no days with more than 3 out of 25 - 30 horses pulled. Where Goethe
Challenge had an 83% comletion in LD, 81% in 50, and 62.5% completion in the
hundred. I realize these rides are completely different sides of the country,
but it seems to be a trend in all the Multi days that there are fewer pulls. Do
more experienced people ride Multi Days? Or, all the Multi Days are out west,
are there actually more pulls in the more humid east?
Off to the NOAA site to look up historical weather
data!
