Hold Times

["April" <adlee@mailandnews.com>]

Ok, I'm a little confused.  I'm in the South East region and have attended
only 2 rides.  Both were LD rides of 25 miles.  I asked at both rides and
was told that the hold times were included in the 6 hours that I had to
finish the ride.  In other words, I had 5 hours 30 minutes to RIDE the 25
miles.  The 6 hours was total time from the start to the last vet check to
check for fit to continue, including the middle vet check and hold time.

I'm not sure who the author was, but in a recent e-mail on RC that I
scanned, I read that increasing hold times would NOT decrease the actual
RIDE time (maybe the author was talking about CTR instead of AERC endurance?
Sorry, I hit the delete button too fast after reading that message...)  But,
if the hold times for those LD rides that I rode was extended from 30
minutes to 45 minutes, then I would only have 5 hours 15 minutes to RIDE
instead of 5 hours 30 minutes.

So, is this a regional thing?  Or a difference between endurance and LD, or
endurance and CTRs?

I looked at the AERC website and found the following rules:

"5 The ride must provide a specific amount of time (total competition time)
which will include all stops and holds, and within which competitors must
complete the ride to qualify for placing or completion.
5.1 There may be no minimum time limit for completion.
5.2 Total competition time will be according to the following prescription:
6 hours for 25 miles, 12 hours for 50 miles, 24 hours for 100 miles, and
other distances to be according to the chart in Appendix A.
5.3 Riding time is the time used by the competitors to complete the course,
excluding all hold times, and is the time used for AERC ride results."

I understand that this might not be the most up-to-date rules...I don't have
my rulebook handy (buried somewhere in my house), so I looked on the web.

According to these rules, as I read them, increasing the hold times would
indeed reduce riding time and would necessarily increase the speed of the
back runners in order to qualify for a completion.

April & Apache
Chattanooga, TN


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