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I think it may end up impacting ride managers more than anyone.  Will they have to have additional vets at the finish in order to anticipate even more of a clog at the vet lines?  Will they have to change their finish lines to make them closer to vet checks which we've heard in the past can be more dangerous for partcipants as well as volunteers and spectators?  Will managers have to be more creative with start times to try and keep finishers spread out more during the day? And then, how will it really affect our horses?  If there's a long walk, long line to vet check and say it really does take 40 min. to get your card in a vet's hands, are you DQ'd? And how does your horse handle a finish that may not have a sufficient amount of hay at the check line while trying to get through the occasional long wait? 

 

Again, in 30 years, I've not been to a ride that had adequate vetting to begin with that would have been impacted, despite walks from the finish, etc.

  

Now, I have a question for the vets, say it takes 45 min. for the HR to finally reach 60.  Is it not the vet's perogative to look for causes and to pull said horse even though it reached criteria in under one hour?  I would say a 45 min. pulse time wouldn't fool anyone into thinking the horse was okay, to me it seems like it's a major red flag and a cause for looking more closely.  Maybe a low gut score combined with the 45 min. recovery time would be an example where the vet steps in and makes the call?  I imagine it happens although I've not personally witnessed it.  I actually can only recall one horse over the past five years (that I've personally seen) that may not have pulsed down within an hour, heavy muscled QH, top ten on a 50, in really hot weather.  May or may not have reached criteria, I don't recall the outcome. 

 

Certainly it is our perogative to pull the horse for other reasons.  The problem is that those other reasons may not manifest themselves until later, or the metabolic stress, repeated over multiple rides, may cause long term issues.  You're right--a pulse that takes 45 minutes to reach the set criterion is a HUGE red flag and DOES indicate that something is wrong--the horse is in no way "fit to continue."  But the problem may simply be overriding, and it may not be possible to "pinpoint" it any closer than that.

 

Heidi

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