Offering more opionions here (Roger, you shamed me
into speaking up :)
1)Having a P/R gate into a timed hold, but no vet
check:
I've
been to rides where this was done, seemed like a reasonable idea. Useful if
loops are long, or if conditions are difficult - may give horses a needed short
break to eat and drink. Gives ride managers a little more freedom when designing
courses and working out the logistics of loop length, vet checks, etc. May be
especially useful in areas that are hard to reach by 'normal' vehicles, or are a
long drive from the other vet checks or base camp. I may do this on my multiday
ride this fall, since there will be some long loops and remote areas.
2)
Requiring a minimum of 2 vetchecks per 50 miles:
I have
a few objections to this. - one, I don't like to see rules passed which are
either hard to enforce or don't necessarily solve the problem. Unless you
specify a minimum loop length, requiring '2 VC's per 50 miles' doesn't guarantee
that the horse will be examined at optimum intervals. A ride manager could have
both VC's with 5 miles of each other, or one VC a mile from camp, and would
satisfy the rule, but not address the issue. One could address this in the rule
by stating a minimum loop length - e.g. 17.5 miles, but it would be very
difficult for ride managers to have to adhere to a minimum loop length rule. In
some areas it would prohibit them from using some trails. Things are very
different between East and West, and it may be easier to do this in the East,
but out here in the West, things are still pretty wild and remote, and vehicle
access to trails is minimal.
Also -
having ridden many multiday rides, where one VC half way through the ride is the
norm, I haven't seen that there is a problem. Even single day rides often have
20 mile loops - and I haven't seen problems that seemed related to the loop
length. A 15 mile fast/flat loop in hot/humid conditions may be much more
difficult on horses than a 25 mile loop in an arid climate, with natural
obstacles to slow the speed. There are too many other variables
(terrain,weather,competition) which have a greater effect on horse health during
endurance rides, to warrant singling out one variable, especially a
variable which also causes hardship to ride managers.
If a
rule such as the '2 vet check per 50 miles' or '17 mile minimum loop length'
came before the BOD for a vote, at this point I would not support it.
Steph
