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  • - Heidi Smith

    [RC] Another aspect of metabolic failure - Heidi Smith


    One thing that several have hinted at here but we really haven't dug into is the effect that course design has on metabolic failure.  Angie has suggested several times her fears over the long loops and short/few holds at the WEG, as have others.  I'd submit that the course may have been appropriate as designed HAD IT NOT BECOME A QUAGMIRE!  Our own completing riders have commented that they backed off expecting to pick up the pace later, and then couldn't.  Such a quagmire is MUCH more conducive to fatigue than is a hard course.  Ride management, even at a WEG level, have to be willing to make changes based on abrupt changes in the course.  Given the change in footing, the course became a VERY fatiguing course, on which it would have been far easier to excessively fatigue a horse without realizing it, especially if one had never ridden under such circumstances.  (For once, you Floridians used to deep sand would have had an advantage!)  The course as it became due to the rain really did need more and longer rest stops.  While it might not have been possible to add more at the last minute, the holds that did exist could have been made longer by a meeting of the veterinary committee, stewards, and ground jury.  It is disappointing that that wasn't done, as there should have been enough experience among that group to anticipate the change in difficulty caused by the weather.  Just another thought, and one that should be rammed home somehow to Michael Stone....
     
    Just an example of how course design affects appropriateness of holds--I've seen desert rides in the fall run a pre-dawn loop of 30 miles or so, and have a fairly short hold afterward, and that works well--the horses are not very fatigued, the weather is cool if not downright cold, and elongated hold time has horses out shivering in the cold, which is much worse than proceeding down the trail.  By the same token, going up over the Sierras at the Tevis is a fair stretch, even though it is a similar distance into Robinson Flat, and there is no question in my mind that the full hour there is appropriate and needed.  Likewise, a tough mountainous segment in a ride may well need a hold right after, even if it isn't a very long segment, where in milder terrain, it would be unnecessary.  One can't just look at the mileages and set hold times--one has to look at terrain, footing, likely weather, and all sorts of things when appropriately designing a course.
     
    Heidi