Re: MECHANICAL FATIGUE

[Truman Prevatt <truman.prevatt@netsrq.com>]

At 07:00 AM 5/13/98 -0400, you wrote:
>On Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 08:05:52 -0400 you wrote:
>
>>>>>John:
>
>Do not be discouraged. CTR's are judged subjectively.  What one vet sees
>another may not...the vet may be right or wrong, but your are paying and
entry
>fee for his opinion.<<<<
>
>Teddy, 
>
>	If the veterinarian judging on an (ECTRA) CTR is "subjective", then ALL
>veterinary judging (including AERC) is "subjective", too!  
>

Several years ago I did a few CTR's - not ECTRA but SEDRA who has similar
rules as ECTRA and who strives to be objective.  My problem was I was doing
them on a walking horse. The judges and the vets tended to either a) not be
very well trained in judging motion of anything but a trot or b) have to be
so nit picky that anything out of the absolute standard of a trot was lame.
 After trotting a sound horse out four time and having it pronounced lame
in all four legs at different times I came to the conclusion that I should
try endurance.  

Never had a lame horse at an endurance ride - except for the tumble at the
Biltmore when she was sore from the fall.  In fact she even won a BC. I
know of other people with the same problems at CTR's with other gaited
horses, paso, foxtrotters, saddlebreds, etc.   

On one ride several years ago in FL the head vet was out of Tennessee.  Vet
students from UF were helping the vets and trying to learn something.  I
trotted out Misty for the completition and the vet called gait A and
impulsion A.  The student looked perplexed and the vet said, "haven't you
ever seen a walking horse move before".  The answer was no.  So he asked me
to trot Misty out again as he explained how they move and what to look for
in a walking horse.  

This was a last year vet student who would be out on the world soon - maybe
judging CTR's - and she was ready to call my horse lame.

Truman