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Re: [RC] New Rider Proposals (how new is new?) - rides2farThe vet checks are often more thorough thanendurance rides, as the horse is checked for not only metobolics, but injuries, sore back, rubs, interference marks etc. Something "some" endurance vets are very good about checking, but others skip many oftheseareas. And the score cards you receive are worth the entry fee. Don't know what vets you've been seeing, but the ones I've been checked by have checked *all* of the above. I'll admit my experience with CT has been limited. I took pulses for a ride in 1990 I think, and rode drag for them several times but there were quite a few things that bothered me about the quality of vet care. Whereas I expected a full vet check several times during the ride, they had simply a pulse check. The way it was run dumbfounded me. You came around the curve in the trail and they had the horses lined up like a horse show. The area (a jeep road) was tight and the horses were so close together that when one horse cut loose and kicked the whole line was chaos for a moment. There was no sponging allowed. The riders had the girths loosened and they were all fanning with little pieces of cardboard. It looked pretty rediculous. One really musclebound QH looked rough to me. When I took his pulse I did a skin pinch on him and his rider said, "What are you doing?" She literally didn't know I was testing for hydration. I looked at his flank because he looked like a good candidate for thumping or *something*. She asked what I was doing and said I just thought I'd check for thumps and she said, "What's that?" When they were in camp they had a full vet check that was used to JUDGE them...but I thought it was too late to be of any good to them as far as protecting them. Maybe they had a full vet check sometime during the ride but I didn't see it. When I rode drag I was with an endurance rider and a CT rider. We trotted right into the pulse check area and I hopped off and was checking to see how fast our horses recovered. She had no idea how fast her horse would recover after trotting since she was used to walking the last 2 mi. or so into a check to be sure she arrived in the 40's. We had been talking pulses and she was alarmed at what high pulses we were used to arriving at...then she was very surprised that our horses outrecovered hers by quite a bit. I don't think she knew her horse ever went over 44. :-P I'm sure there's some good stuff about CT. but monitoring of the horse's condition, in my opinion is not superior to endurance rides. Angie ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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