Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Hello form Australia

Hi to all at ride camp.

My name is Greg and I live in Tasmania(Island State of Australia) I have
been Endurance Riding for about 12 years now and am preparing me Pure Arab
Stallion for the 2002 Tom Quilty (Similar to your Tevis
Cup)."Matey"(Bellawongarah Ibn Riaal) is a seasoned horse and has over 3000
successful Kilometres including one Tom Quilty completion in 1999.

I have been reading with interest the posts on Vet cards and how much
training.

Could someone enlighten me on the vetting procedure that is used in the
States.

In Australia each horse has a Log Book. There are two stages. A blue book is
for a novice horse and the yellow book is for horses that have satisfied the
criteria for an endurance horse. These books are waterproof paper and can't
be tampered with.Vetting parameters are very strict.

A normal vetting flows something like this. Horse arrives back at base has
1/2 hour to recover below 55bpm(after first leg subsequent legs 60bpm)
Report to TPR steward Temperature Pulse and Respiration taken .if above
above parameters horse is vetted out. If Ok then on to the vet who does a
thorough check of pulse gut sounds, cap refill,skin recoil, mucus membranes,
alertness, feet & legs back, muscle tone anal tone and then the trot out.

This procedure is used for 80Km rides For 160Km rides the CRI method is
usually used.

Anyone who is interested in our rule book check out www.aera.asn.au the
website of Australia's governing endurance body.

On training an old endurance rider told me it takes an hour a day for a
thousand days to have an endurance horse that will run at the front of the
field. I have found this not to be too wrong. Now that Matey is well
conditioned we usually train three or four times a week alternating between
9 Km and 20Km tracks. I am very lucky as I ride out my gate virtually into
Forestry land where I can ride for hours. Once per month I try to do my
training on the beach. This is about an hour from home. My usual training
pace is about 9-10Km per hour.

Cheers Greg

TEERA#70084

Re: [RC] Hello form Australia - Joan Ruprecht