I wasn’t going to comment on this because I almost
always vet my horse in at the finish of a ride as soon as possible. However
those who ride endurance know how fast time passes at vet checks and at the end
of a ride. Fifteen minutes or 30 minutes seems to fly by in the blink of
an eye when you are feeding, untacking and cleaning up your horse. I like
to be able to relax at the end of a ride and take care of my horse and don’t
relish the idea of only having 30 minutes to vet my horse or be disqualified. It
isn’t about getting the pulse down within a certain time because my horse
is usually down when I get back to my trailer but it just adds another time
constraint to take away the fun of endurance riding. Most endurance
riders don’t have crew to turn their horse over to at the finish and I
personally wouldn’t want one. I like to unsaddle and feed my horse
and then sit down and relax for a few minutes, maybe having a cold drink,
before cleaning up my horse and presenting for the final vet check. Sometimes
there is only 1 vet at the finish and several horses lined up waiting. Are
we going to have to worry if our 30 minutes is up while we are waiting in line?
Probably not but I don’t want to worry about that happening. Can’t
we keep endurance riding simple and fun and not add more stringent rules that
don’t seem to have a scientific basis? I’m all for rules that
are put in place to protect our horses but I don’t see that this would be
one.
