Re: Consequin Challenge

[Roger Rittenhouse-VMAXEPT <vmaxept@cococo.net>]

Hi gang.. 
I will write a full report tomorrow. Took all day to get home and I am
tired -read a few of the comments..some not so nice..
you should have been there.

The reason VTC and the OC did not post anything before during or after
the race was all flack from this list and others  and lack of manpower.

real quick -it was great.
The gentlemen  from the Middle East did NOT trash their leased horses.
A few were treated but in good order. Some horses were given fluid
because the owners wanted to prevent any latent problems.

It was a great race -well run very few neg comments.  Will always have
someone complain.
No one ran over a rider in need.. no one bashed a vet when pulled..
I did not hear one rider bad mouth a vet after a pull..of course they
were not happy.

Few trail problems-  one with a mud hole riders got stuck and 2 fell in
the river.. but i don't think any horse was hurt bad from trail problems
but they did pull (RO) from the race.

There was one horse that was real bad.. unknown as to what went
wrong..and i think one or 2 others that needed extra care.
2 remain on site for the week. I don't know the extent of the problems.
I know when I left they were ok

The west coast gang from Lari S did not fair to well. heat and humidity
really puts the stress on them ..and after a 5 or 6 day haul maybe there
were too stressed from that. I think one got around? Nature Sungari with
a very nice young lady from Brazil.

One of them (on the 50 )got in trouble Sun evening  looked like colic
and was not so good this am when I left.

Looked to me to not be any different then ROC or OD 100.

It was a tough race. 
Dr Bob Beacher said it was most likely the toughest races he veted.
VC PR was set to 60.
We did have some cloud cover but it was about 88 to 90 degrees with i
guess 70% humidity. We had a late eveing shower. But that made alot of
fog and caused night riding problems.

ANY race in Fort Valley will be very difficult. The base camp was super
and there were not all that many problems that I saw. The FEI thing
caused some issues on FRI and a few on Sat but that was mostly riders
lack of knowledge about FEI..this was a LEARNING ride for those who may
want to try FEI later.
I thought all the FEI officials were doing a great job.

All the pre ride flap from last year and into this year from riders on
this list and a few AERC officials were all off base. The riders and the
vets proved you decentors wrong and surely set aside all the concerns. 

WE CAN hold this type of venue and still have great horse care and good
sportsmanship.

Maybe --if this type of ride is held again -- more will support it by
coming to ride, help, or observe.


what money???
lets see the ROC trailer was worth 7K?  
just maybe some rode safe to make sure they would complete just to take
home some of the pay back

Val and the VTC -Tracy Ingram his mom Virginia and his lady friend Amy
were the core group with 'Ski' from PA and Glen -trail clearing and
about 50 other friends --and Larry --made this race a world class event.

I was pleased to part of the sponsor program and to crew again for the
team Kanavy..Wendy/Cash-- Danielle/Jedi-BC

more later.
Roger R