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Re: [RC] re:Rapid Pulse Recovery - Diane Trefetheng brass wrote:Sorry, I'm a newbie/lurker. When I found RPR on www.typef.com/RapidPulseRecovery/ <http://www.typef.com/RapidPulseRecovery/> ,it sounded relevant to several current discussions. I thought this guy was well respected, why was this idea not implemented? There have been a couple of people asking here about Dr Matthew MacKay-Smith's Rapid Pulse Recovery idea. Originally proposed in November, 2003, and discussed here on Ridecamp starting with a post on April 25, 2006, (see the archives for the author Dveritas), this proposal has not taken off, despite a considerable amount of initial support because: 1) The proposal would penalize by removing from contention for placings all horses failing to recover to criteria in 15 minutes. The exact time is not the crucial point. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, the proposal would still contain a basic flaw. 2) The flaw is that while recovery times ARE an indication of trouble, they are ALSO an indication of other things, like newness to the sport, excitement at "losing" one's buddy, exposure to a multitude of other excited horses, a mare in heat, etc. The penalty would be imposed on ALL the horses that failed to recover in 15 minutes, regardless of the reason. Allowing the vets to take into consideration "mitigating" circumstances won't work. Just because a horse is clearly influenced by a "mitigating" circumstance doesn't mean he isn't ALSO about to be in metabolic trouble. There is just no way to tell. Until there is a way to determine with sizable accuracy whether a horse's pulse failing to recover in 15 minutes is physiological (metabolic/pain) or psychological, removing from competition and allowing only a completion, horses who otherwise meet the required criteria, will hopefully not materialize, at least not as a hard and fast AERC rule. This line of reasoning probably doesn't apply as well to our current discussion of 30 vs 60 minutes for end of ride pulse recovery because after going 50 miles, a lot of the psychological triggers are mitigated if not completely gone. Still, a rider who believes his horse's failure to recover at the end of a ride is psychological would be remiss in not soliciting the opinion of the vet. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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