Re: adding rider weight

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 98-09-02 12:35:32 EDT, vanhove@unavco.ucar.edu writes:

<< Seems riduculus though that you can carry weights in saddle bags, pads, etc
that
 come off & on at vet checks but not take a weighted vest off the rider at
checks.  
 If they trust you to put the weight back on the horse they should trust you
to
 put it back on yourself.  >>

No, they don't trust you to put those weights back on the horse, either.
Things that go in fanny packs to make weight are either itemized or sealed,
too.  It isn't so much a matter of trust as a matter of having a way to
document what is being done in case some other rider protests.  If everything
is documented, checked, sealed, etc., then there is a paper trail to follow if
someone screams foul.  If you have a meticulous paper trail, then most fouls
can be determined then and there, and don't escalate into a major fight.  The
more different sets of personalities, nationalities, rules systems, etc., that
the riders are used to, the more important this becomes, and the more pressure
there is to excel at one ride (such as a world championship) the more
important this becomes.  I am glad to say that in the time that I have been
personally associated with FEI rides, this has really become a fairly smooth
process.  Our Pan Am here in Bend went practically without a hitch, simply
because there was a contingency for just about everything.  The folks who have
worked a lot of these have learned the pitfalls and have developed ways to
cope with them.

Heidi Smith, DVM--Sagehill Arabians (Oregon)
Chairman of the Organizing Committee--Pan-Am '97