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Re: [RC] Endurance Polls/Recovery Times - Aaron TurnageAngie brings up some great points in that not only does speed, temp, humidity, but trail conditions and a horse's general "attitude" all affect recovery times. Unfortunately, unless we want to have a committee of volunteers that interviews random samplings of riders at rides in every region, I just don't think we will be able to get the answers we need. As she pointed out, sometimes our "memory" of the incident isn't exactly how it has been officially recorded on paper.
The main reason I brought this up is that there has been a very small murmer of discussion regarding lowering the allowable recovery time from 30 minutes. If you go to the AERC Members Only forum and look in the archives for today you can see most of this topic. This is stemming from the Horse Deaths/Treatment thread we have all been discussing (or reading about as the case may be). Several ride vets have already expressed that the would possibly be in favor of seeing those times lowered.
So I ask you this, if you knew you only had 15 minutes to have your horse recovered, how would that change your riding strategy? I personally am just getting started this year (4 LD's completed and my first 50 coming up) but I have volunteer and spectated at several of our local (Reno, NV) rides for the last couple of years. I can tell you that at the rides I've been to, MOST people are presenting for their P&R with tack on freshly off the trail. Often times they haven't even taken their horses to the trailer/crew spot yet. They pulse in, get their in/out time, and THEN go untack and prepare for the vetcheck. From what I've observed, most of these horses are down within 5 minutes and even on my geldings first ride, where he spiked to high 120's just SEEING the vetcheck at a walk (had been low 70's) he was down within 10 minutes of our arrival time.
Just food for thought....
Crysta Turnage & CT's Sinatra
P.S. Also, how would you feel about having to present post-ride within 30 minutes?
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