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[RC] Vermont PAC vs Washington PAC - John & Sue Greenall

Angie brought up a good point...distance between holds!  
I rode both the Vermont and Washington PAC. I helped design the 
Vermont trail (I live on it) and traditionally we have 7 holds.  For the 
PAC, we had 6 holds and a "gate and go" (and quicky vet exam), 
the longest loop being 22 miles but it had the gate and go in it at 
11 miles.  We also had 7 on trail crew/hospitality locations. Yes, 
we were critisized for having too many holds!!   But, we had the 
best completition rate of any PAC and very few horses treated, 
although we did have a horse die.
The Washingon PAC had the first three loops at 20-20-21 miles 
and there were only five holds (although the hold times were 50-60 
minutes which was a help) and 4 crewing locations.  Interestingly, I 
crewed that ride the year before and they had six holds (which 
meant shorter loops). Obviously, someone got them to change the 
format for the PAC.  
My recollection of the Manitoba PAC was a very high pull rate and 
metabolic treatments towards the end of the ride...another ride with 
long loops.
Of course, there are horses out there that CAN perform well on 
longer loops, as proven by Catch a Wave and Smoke Silver and the 
many other top ten horses that ran quite a race at Manitoba and 
Washington.  But we need to look out for the welfare of all horses, 
not just those that are top contenders.

So here's the question...did Vermont prove that shorter loops (more 
holds) is better for our horses?  Who made the decision to change 
the Washington course and what was the rationale behind it?  
When Stagg puts together his data, can a correlation be found 
between completion rate and the number of holds/length of loops?

John and Sue Greenall
mailto:greenall@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.vermontel.com/~greenall

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