[RC] AERC forum 30 minute completion time - oddfarm
The discussion is about a possible 30 minute time
limit at the finish.
While I don't have a problem with it, it is a tad
confusing. I agree that horses should recover in less than 15 minutes. I am not
sure that if they don't, they are "over stressed". Any hard workout is
stressing. That's the point. Stress plus recovery equals
improvement. So they say.
What really confuses me is that Dr. Weary talks
about horse welfare prevention and how this rule might help, but AERC's
own horse welfare reports do not reflect a problem with an hour limit
at the end. IN fact the year end of 2008 states,
"As with the
charts for the previous six years, there are no glaring reasons why most of
these horses died."
Hmmm?
I also agree with Dr. Weary that there may be a lot
of horses that we don't know about. But you can't use "data" you don't have.
That's not research or even scientific. That's not even sensible. The WHC
report does state that about half of the horses who died at or after rides, were
subject to a post mortem exam. So if horses are, or are not recovering
within the current hour time, and then dying or being put down days later, how
will a 30 minute recovery at the end of a ride prevent that?
"As with
the charts for the previous six years, there are no glaring reasons why most of
these horses died."
I thought the purpose of the WHC was to learn how
we might improve completions and reduce the number of horses lost from competing
in this sport. If AERC's own reports do not reflect over riding or horses
suffering complications from riding, (a number of deaths are just plain
accidents) then where exactly is this research,
as it pertains to endurance riding coming from?
I understand an elevated heart rate can be the
first sign of trouble. But it can also mean a horse is just tired or
wasn't properly conditioned. If that is the case, then Diane's idea of holding
the completion until the rider brought the horse back after a predetermined time
would work best for the horse. That might even mean fewer "unknowns" as Dr.
Weary eluded to.
Again, only having a half an hour to recover at the
end would not bother me in the least. I train and ride in hot, humid, muggy
central Florida and even on the worst days, we recover rather quickly without
hosing. I believe that if your horse isn't down in 15 minutes you need to
re-think your program strategy. Or get a different horse.
Maybe it should have been a half an hour from the
very beginning, I don't know. I am just curious as to why the powers that be,
(Joe never did say who members are suppose to write their comments to or who was
for this change) feel the need for this change when their own "research" from
the WHC does NOT reflect an issue with the 1 hour time. I am not saying that
there even needs to be any real research, but where is the common sense in this
idea?
"As with the
charts for the previous six years, there are no glaring reasons why most of
these horses died."
Lisa Salas, The odd farm
9:45 am and 85 degrees with 88% humidity it must be
fall :)
