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[RC] RE WEC observations - Ridecamp GuestPlease Reply to: karen kroon karen.kroon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== John- what I thought was different at your ride, other than it seemed to me that some of the prospective team was holding back, was that you had a couple of hour holds(the green grass and good water helped also). In riding and in vetting I really think the hour holds allow the horses to come all the way down and really eat and drink. In the shorter holds, even if you have a good crew, the horses are being washed, in line for the vet, checked,walked back to hold area, tacked up, now we have the additional check before you leave, all this limits the time they have to rest and replenish. I know I like the hour holds as a rider because I don't usually have a crew but I insist on them as a vet because I hate spending my night treating horses. We had lots of horses and fast times at your ride and no metabolic pulls or treatments (except for one rider). How nice to go to bed and not worry about my horse or any horse in trouble. Some tell me that they are afraid of stiffening up. Horses that "stiffen up" -go lame-? after an hour may be better off staying at the check. This is a small change that can go a long way in my opinion to decrease the number of metabolic pulls and treated horses. I know in the past the FEI wanted to limit the hold times so the event wouldn't drag into the night so much, but with such fast times, a little extra hold time shouldn't matter. Karen-(Enjoying the Iraq experience, especially the voting success, but can't wait to get off the internet and back on the trail) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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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