Re: Hw vs Fw

[Gayle Ecker <gecker@uoguelph.ca>]

Truman Prevatt wrote:
<<Is 1/2 point per pound a good compensation for the weight carried.
<<Probably not and the true effect is probably not linear.  Namely a pound
<<over 200 probably has a different effect than a pound over 165.  But 
<<until additional data are available tinkering doesn't make too much
<<sense.
<<What does it mean?  Beats me, but if someone could come up with
sufficient
<<funding I would be very happy to go take a look. (VBG>.

Of course, if we want to "really, really" look at this, we would have to
weigh 
the horse and express the rider/tack weight as a percent of the horse's
weight 
(now would that be weight at the beginning of the ride or at the end?).
Then, 
we may want to express those ratios with a breakdown for muscle vs. fat
mass of 
both horse and rider (to take into account the difference with body
composition 
of both horse and rider) as muscle mass seems to be carried differently
for a 
horse (ask anyone that had to carry extra lead weight!).

VBG

So Truman, if you find the funding, I will be glad to join up.  I can even
bring the horse scale!

All the best,
Gayle