Re: MECHANICAL FATIGUE

["C.M.Newell" <reshan@deyr.ultranet.com>]

>
>The 3 day 100 is a good test - a good way to bring a horse along.  But I
>fear that is not the case for the shorter CTR these days.  I think the
>horses have become better than the test in a 25 mile CTR.  I think the
>conditioning methods used for endurance - selective use of speed for
>anarobic conditioning along with LSD has is producing animals that can tick
>off a 25 with no sweat.


	I think this is true, to a significant extent. Over 10 years of judging
ECTRA CTRs, I have seen a trend towards scores closer and closer to
perfect--just a point off here and there. It has gotten so I feel relieved
to be judging a 2 day, because I have some hope that at least *some* of
those suckers will be tired at the end <G>.


>
>What critera does one use for placement when all the horses at 48/48 at the
>10 minute CRI and all the metabolic parameters are "A". This is the case
>for most SE CTR's.  I fear that what is happening is the 25 mile CTR is
>becoming a horse show where beauty of movement is replacing condition as
>the critera. 

	This is less true, IME. I don't reward "beauty" of movement so much as
consistency. 


>I see the judges becoming so picky in order to get placements that it is
>turnig people off.  I see judges hiding in the brush and horses spooking
>and losing points because they spooked at something in the brush moving. 

	Thank goodness I don't have to do that under ECTRA rules. Just condtition.
			--CMNewell, DVM