Re: Re: LD and BC

[Terry Woolley <cancer@simplyweb.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandy Bolinger" <bolinger@bigsky.net>

>  Phew!   So Time and Weight do factor in...but the vet score sheet is
> ultimately worth allot more points...I can't imagine having to complete
one
> of these sheets for every single rider...
>


Sandy,

    You're right, having the vets take all that time and then calculating it
for a large number would be a nightmare.   Another problem is that with
limited distance with the horse "only" doing 25 or 30 (I'm kidding about the
"only"-- some 25's are a lot tougher than some 50's), the horse sometimes
has not been worked enough to see a difference among 50 or 100 horses.  And
then there is the catch 22 thing that Sandy mentioned that 25's are not
encouraged to race, but for LD's to get credit by AERC  then BC must be
judged the same way as the 50's which means only the top ten. So don't race,
but if you don't you can't get AERC  BC credit.

    At our rides we give BC awards to the LD horses based on a formula that
I developed using the scores given on the ride cards.  While this is still
subjective because horses may be seen thoughout the ride by different vets,
it still gives all the riders an opportunity to have their horse considered
for a BC award regardless of where they finish in the pack.    My doing this
is not in violation of any AERC rule since (unfortunately) the riders do not
receive AERC credit for this.  BTW, Sandy got a top 5 BC award (a chair
embroidered with the award).

    This is how it is calculated (and I must admit, this can be very time
consuming, so must be assigned to be done my someone who likes numbers and
doesn't mind being out of the fun for an hour or two).

    There are 11 perimeters that are considered by the vets (gut sounds,
tone, hydration,etc).  Each of these are given a score by the vet (A, A-,
B+, etc.).  I take these numbers and convert them to a number.

A = 8
A- = 7
B+ = 6
B = 5
B- = 4
C+ = 3
C =  2
C- = 1

I call this score the BDAT score which means the scores Before, During,
After and then a Total.  The majority of the horses will get all A's before
the ride, so there is 88 points.  There is normally one vet check during the
ride, so the same perimeters are judged.  With this score the values are
doubled (a horse that received  8 A's and 3 B+s would have a base score of
82, and then that would be doubled).  For the During score the horse would
get 164 (a perfect would be 176).  For the After score (the post ride), the
same perimeters are used and the score is tripled (a horse that received 6
A's, 4 A-, and 1 B- would have a base score of 78 and that would be
tripled). The horse's after score would be  234 (a perfect would be 264).
All of those three scores are totaled.  In this case the horse's score would
be  486.   I do take away penalty points also.  If, at the vet check, the
horse took more than 10 minutes to recover, then 2 points is subtracted for
every minute over 10.

In many ways this calculation is even more involved than the AERC BC
calculatlion, but this method does not put an additional burden on the vets
to re-evaluate all the horses for BC.

A perfect score with the horse receiving all A's at the preride, the vet
check, and the post ride, with no penalty points would be 528.

There are many instances where the horse will get perfect scores.  And I
don't think I can remember a time when ANY of the top five BC horses were
the top ten horses.

As I mentioned before, this is all subjective, and some horses just have
better vet scores than others, no mattter how conservative they are ridden,
but it at least rewards those LD riders who try to ride within the
capabilities of  their horses fitness level to be rewarded.

Terry Woolley Howe
Pacific Southwest