Fw: australian endurance

["Sandy Bolinger" <bolinger@bigsky.net>]

this is a reply I received from Sue in Australia with a brief description of
how things work over there...I thought it was interesting...Sue told me to
go ahead and share it with you all...
----- Original Message -----
From: Dalkeith Hostel <dalkeith@net-tech.com.au>
To: Sandy Bolinger <bolinger@bigsky.net>
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2000 3:20 PM
Subject: Re: australian endurance


> Hi Sandy
>
> Our ride books are blue for Novice horses, they must do 3 x 80 km rides
> successfully before they are eligible for their yellow log book.  All
TPR's
> from their rides are recorded in these books along with vet comments and
> kept as a permanent record of the horse's performance.


TPR is Temperature, Pulse and Respiration.  Yes we have an early warning
system for people who vet out too often.  You can get dropped back to Novice
status if you vet out too many times.  It is a strict system designed to
look after the horses.  Membership of some riders has been suspended or
cancelled for horse abuse.

The horses details are recorded in the front of the book and any horse with
a yellow log book must have a microchip which is checked at each ride.  I
don't know of anyone that complains about the system - except maybe those
that abuse their horses!

Horses with a yellow book that have not completed a ride in 13 months need
to again complete their novice status.

No horse under the age of 4 1/2 may do a training ride (under 80km) no horse
under the age of 5 may do a ride of 80km or more.  Every rider must
successfully complete 2 x 40km rides before being allowed to compete in 80km
rides.  All these rules are easy to follow and for the protection of the
horse which of course is paramount
> If you would like to know anymore, please just e-mail me.
>
> regards
>
> Sue Henderson
>
>