Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

disagree. Physics also talks about the center of mass of a load and
torque etc which is not the whole answer either. A 70lb saddle firmly
attached to the horse has an extremely low center of mass so a horse
carrying that and a 150lb rider spends less energy balancing that load as
compared to carrying a 20lb saddle and a 200lb rider (mostly men at this
weight) with a higher center of mass that requires much more energy on
the part of the horse to maintain balance. There is also the cumulative
effect of the horse being pounded on the back buy 150lbs as opposed to
200lbs. We are also not talking about a quick sprint around a flat
perfectly maintained track so the TB racing analogy and Newton's carcass
are only part of the total energy calculation.
Don Huston

At 06:43 AM 12/30/2005 Friday, you wrote:
> disagree. Physics
> dictates that the stress on the horse is the sum total of the mass it
> carries (theirs, ours, and tack).  weigh the whole kitten kaboodle
> or dig up Newtons carcass and tell him hes full of it.
>  
> In your TB analogy, where is the weight added when handicapping or
> standardizing weight carried by jockeys?........the saddle!  So how
> would you not include tack in weighing a rider??
>  
> My horse carries about 230 (195 human + 35 pounds junk). Whether someone
> chooses to ride one class or another in one specific incident may be
> frustrating, but most of the time the HW is the smallest class.  I
> can think of few if any incidents where it would have benefited me to
> ride MW.  Fewer total HW enter at MOST (yes not all!) rides & as
> it has been articulated a weight class is a minimum so in theory at 230#
> I could enter as a FW.  If of course I wanted to get proverbially
> spanked by 20-30 skinny minnies who can ride like the wind.  We take
> our place at the back, often dead last & 1st HW.
>  
>  
> Jon K. Linderman, Ph.D., FACSM
> Associate Professor of Health and Sport Science
> University of Dayton
>
> -----ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> wrote: -----
>
> To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> From: Ridecamp Guest <guest-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent by: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: 12/29/2005 06:27PM
> Subject: [RC] weight divisions
>
>
> Please Reply to: Joyce spitfire@xxxxxxxxxxx or
> ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> ==========================================
>
> I believe that the weight divisions should be in accordance with the
> riders weight alone, not with tack. I was at a ride where the rider
> didn't know if he should ride middleweight or heavyweight.  He asked
> the ride manager how many and who were in the classes.  She told him
> and he decided on heavyweight.  I know what some of you are going to
> say, that it shouldn't have happened, but it does.  A true
> heavyweight doesn't have much of a chance, even though the saddle has
> been weighted. This is just as bad as TB racing. Believe it or not their
> are some riders that weigh over 250lbs without their tack. How about your
> opinions?
>
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> 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!!
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> ----------------- 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!!
> -----------------