Be careful what you wish for. There's that old
"unintended consequences" thingy. If you make it more costly to pull by having
penalties for pulling, you create an incentive for riders to not pull when they
know their horse is having problems but to try to hide the problem and
finish.
I write;
This is already something that happens regularly...there
is already an incentive for riders to not pull when they know their horse is
having problems...pressure from the rest of the team...egos...etc. Just to get
to the point of being chosen for the team involves riders hiding problems
they might be having with soundness etc, from the selection
committee. Everyone involves knows the deception goes on,
before, during and after the event...and nobody has the balls to speak up or do
anything about it.
