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> So - a rider has great incentive to ride wisely, guaranteeing a completion
> so that they can advance, or so that they are not bumped back down to a
> lower division.
Or, conversely, the rider has even more incentive to cover up a problem and
try to get through if they are nearing "x" completions.

> I believe that we are one of the only countries that will allow anybody
(new
> rider, new horse) to ride at any level at any time, and do not impose any
> sort of penalty for messing up.
The rider or horse with "x" pulls is already under the eagle eyes of the
vets.  And the very fact that they HAVE been pulled and have come back means
that we stopped them in time.  If you look at it in one light, pulls are
successes--they are problems that we caught and stopped in time.  To me, the
big issue is not repetitive pulls--it is treatments and deaths.  How do we
spot the "Big One" coming down the pike?  The horse that has been just fine
for a few hundred miles (or more) and THEN crashes?  I don't see that the
crashed horses necessarily have a pull record preceeding them.  Furthermore,
the ones ridden by savvy riders with agendas will simply be backed off for a
few "successful" rides if they get close to "x."  I'm trying to think of ANY
horse I've treated that have had a history of pulls immediately prior to
"the incident."  I can't think of a one.  I can think of one that had a
checkerboard career of metabolic issues, but there were always successful
completions interspersed among the episodes.  (Furthermore, that horse had a
VERY intuitive rider who often sensed problems coming on and generally had
already pulled herself with virtually nothing that stood out on veterinary
examination, only to be proven right by having her horse crash 3-4 hours
later.  She eventually retired the horse--good move.)

I think this is one of those things that looks nice on paper but doesn't
really fit what we see out at the rides.  I'd a lot rather look at things
like Mathew's proposal that actually give us tools and detection systems
that might stop an occasional problem in its tracks and result in either
slowing down the horse before tendencies become problems, or in a
"successful pull"--one that occurs before damage is done.

We need to quit thinking of pulls as failures, and instead think of any pull
that returns a healthy horse to the trail at a later date as a Good Pull.

Heidi


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