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> I wonder if the vetscoring system is too lopsided. You always hear about
> horses scoring all A's or A+'s. Even old Hal has manged that once and
> never does worse than a B+ overall. This seems to limit the utility of
> the vet check to the rider. It seems that an A should be difficult to
> get, C should be average, E means you horse's legs are going to fall off
> and an F means that your horse's legs have already fallen off but you
> didn't notice the reason for the smoothness in gait.
In and old edition of the EN there is an article (I think by Dane Frazer,
but I wouldn't swear to it) about what each of the "grade" at a vet check
means as far as metabolic condition, etc. goes. I will see if I can hunt
it down for you. But it is an objective score that all horses are
measured against. These grades are not the same as for school tests that
are graded on a "curve" with all horses being measured against each other
> Perhaps this is because riders take vet scores personally. I recall one
> vet being referred to as the butcher, because he scored harser than the
> other vets at a ride, does this attitude make vets gun shy? Or is it
> because all the horses out there are so well prepared that they only
> show A's until something catastrophic happens and the go kaput? What say
> you all?
I am of the opinion that a horse should be able to make it through a ride
with scores of A & B, as, indeed, if it does not then it is not
sufficiently conditioned or has been over ridden. I do not want to push
my horse to the "C" stage as that is, indeed, an indication of impending
shutdown.
A horse with all A's is one that is well conditioned and well ridden. One
hopes that that is the goal of all endurance riders...to condition their
horses well and to ride them well.
There are some horses (which you have discovered with Hal), however, that
are consistently "deficient" in one particular area, which may be normal
for that horse, but would be an indication of difficulty with a different
horse. Which may mean that some horses will never get all A's. To which
the rider should say, "so what, it is what is normal for my horse."
My experience is, that vets are willing to concede to the rider on this
point unless it is patently obvious that the rider doesn't know what s/he
is talking about. But maybe that is just my experience.
Hope this helps. I'll see if I can find the article so you can know what
you are being measured against.
kat
Orange County, Calif.
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