Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Protecting Horses

Several years ago on a ride we ran, because of the layout of the trail 
the last loop was long (19 miles). It was the El Nino year and FL was 
pretty much flooded everywhere so even finding a trail was a problem. I 
wasn't happy with that and neither was the head but there wasn't room 
for a full vet check anyplace. So we put in a small P&R stop with a 
short hold (15 minutes) half way down where the trail crossed the road. 
We just went up the trail a bit and set up. The horses came in, met 
parameters rested for 15 minutes and were off. If we needed a vet we had 
the phone to call one from camp.

But doing something like this is very situation dependent and really 
can't be legislated.

I think the real answer is a mininum of two vet checks on a 50, but 
there doens't seem to be much support for that idea.

T

Steve Shaw wrote:

> One way to protect the horses from being overridden is to lower the PR
> rates, or enforce respiration stronger, or to add PR gates. You don't
> HAVE to have vets at a PR gate, it can simply be a stop and go and it
> would slow the pace down.
>
> Another thing would be to add a PR gate at the finish line, like many of
> the LD's do. Then the first place horse would be the one PR'ing first.
>
> Any other thoughts?
> Steve Shaw




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