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BET - resolution -TI/Bill/Cliff Part II-other evidence



 from Thorndike /Barnhart   ARBITRATOR=  1. person chosen to decide a dispute.
 2.  Person with full power to judge and decide. --Syn. 1. judge, umpire.

Once again, remember, Tom and Cliff accepted me as the arbitrator. Those of
you who asked questions about the data Bill produced deserve a little more
information. 

On Friday, June 15, 2001, I did a lot of research work....only from Public
sources, i.e. the courthouse, where anyone can view the real property records
for the entire county.  The staff showed me how to use their pc software and
never knew what name I typed in.  Suffice to say, Bill's ranch is considerably
less than he has said for his conditioning, 14 mile trail, etc.  A friend of
mine who lives very near Bill has been watching for land to lease in the area
for longer than Bill has been there, and there is nothing available for lease.
There is no evidence there of a horse trail.  

I viewed Bill's farm from the public road and saw the two horse trailer that
was described in the 18 wheeler wreck without any damage.  From the road I
observed Smokey in the pasture rather close up.  In my 23 years of experience
in endurance riding, I have not seen a horse look like Smokey a month after a
long winter of heavy competitions and conditioning.  The horse appears not to
have been ridden significantly for months.

I have seen both of their trucks.  They are the same two trucks they had in
November when we did our ride.

Most significantly I think, I had a detailed conversation with De, Bill's
wife.  I immediately recorded some of her responses to particular incidents
that I described to her (from Bill's detailed accounts) so that I could be as
accurate as possible. 

The attitude of my conversation with her was non-threatening.  I projected
that, to me, it is no big deal, that it would not affect our relationship in
any way.  I projected that it would all be ok, if it were just stories.  She
said right away that she knew very little about what Bill had been up to on
line;  the first she heard of anything was when someone called her about two
weeks ago and asked some questions.  I told her where she could look at the
archives in RideCamp and look at some of it starting back about 2-3 weeks. 

She said, "I know he likes to joke around, maybe he was joking."  When I asked
if he had knee surgery in May, she just kind of  shook her head, and said
"He's got a joke line going that's not working."  When I asked about how much
riding he had done, mentioning that he told me at our ride in November that he
had been working so much that he had not been riding, she agreed.  She said,
"It was probably just a joke that got carried away."  Previously, just a
couple of days following Bill's account of his reconstructive knee surgery, I
returned a flashlight to De that they had left at our ride.  I said if they
did not help at our ride coming up in June, that maybe Bill could ride.  We
were not expecting a lot of riders. De said he had been doing so many hours at
work that he had not been able to ride Smokey.

Last Friday, about Bill riding 240 miles per week, she said, "It must have
been a joke or something."  About the trailer wreck, and I had already been
out to see the unblemished gray two horse bumper pull at their place, I told
her about Bill telling about an 18 wheeler wreck on the way to the Frigid
Digit ride, she said "This is a joke that got carried away.  I'll talk to
him."  I suggested the best way for it to go away or calm down would be for
Bill to just go ahead and fess up to it.

This is not evidence of Bill having done the four rides or not, but certainly
has a bearing on the evaluation of Bill's data.  Draw your own conclusions. 
No witnesses for any of the four rides have ever come forward. 

When Bill called me last Friday at 7 AM before I began investigating he asked
me to "not get involved in this."  When I asked why, he said that his wife was
about 3/4 mad at him. I told him it was too late, that I had already committed
to checking out his research.  I asked him some questions to which most of his
answers were rather vague and he said he did not "have his notes with him." 
He said a ride manager and a rider would call me.  They have not.  He gave me
locations for the four ride dates. I called Bill back at work Friday and left
a message on his machine asking for the name of the limited distance champion
who had started the other club.  I have not heard back from him. We have a
National AERC Limited Distance Champion in our area who did see Bill briefly
one morning at a restaurant eating breakfast.  She is Patsy Hoffman, and she
has never dropped out of AERC or started another endurance club. There are a
few other LD National Champions -check them on the records on-line.

The location Bill gave me for one of his rides on Friday would have been
underwater at the time it should have occurred.

In lieu of Bill's many other riders, ride managers, and ride vets or vet
assistants coming forward to corroborate that Bill did the rides, and these
additional related facts, I must conclude that not only does Cliff win the
bet, but the endurance riders were asking some good questions.

Because of the personal contact, I am sorry to have gotten involved, but I
think it is necessary that we base our evaluation of supplements on good
science, or at least have evidence that the trials and results are sound.  We
owe it to the horses, who give us everything. They are the ones who give us
the honest relationships. I did this as carefully and quietly as I could, not
involving any of Bill's friends, businesses or neighbors.  I did not violate
any of his rights. Draw your own conclusions.

Now I will batten the hatches for the personal attack.  (I have been to sea
you know and braved the elements --- .) And get back to reading t s eliot's,
Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock.

Edie


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