Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

60 pulse criteria is the norm at rides in the West Region. It is easy to 
check with the head vets who vet a lot of rides and see what they set.  I 
can't remember any rides that it is anything higher, I think at 1 vet check 
at Tevis they raise it to 64.  I have ridden in other regions that use 64, 
and it does seem to me that the people slow down when it's 60 versus 64 
going into the vet check.  But it doesn't seem to change how they ride 
their horses the rest of the time.  It probably does the horses good to go 
into the vet check a little slower though (they usually drink better for 
one thing)  Even at rides I've been at in other regions where they do a 64 
pulse, they will usually do a 10 minute CRI, so the first 10 horses if they 
want to show for BC have to have their CRI done within 10 minutes of 
finishing, and usually those horses have pretty good CRI's.  Certainly 
better than anything as high as 64, so they are dropping below 60 within 10 
minutes of finishing when placing in the front.  Or, if not then maybe they 
don't show for BC and you'd have to figure out that % of horses to know 
that.  It seems like a lot of the riders do the CRI's, and then depending 
upon how that goes determines whether or not they come back to show for BC 
or not.  There are a lot of really good horses out there.   If they are 
doing well with 64 criteria, they will also do well at 60 criteria 
rides.  I have seen a lot of horses that have gotten into the worst trouble 
have had really good CRI's and no problem meeting 60 pulse.

I just wanted to say that the point about a horse falling off of a trail 
and dying is relevant and attention should be paid to it.  It *could* be 
just an accident, but a lot of times when horses are injured or hurt on the 
trail it is because they were tired.  Which can be interpreted in many 
ways, but if it happens too frequently maybe the RM could adjust the 
difficulty of the trail, or adjust where the difficult sections are in 
parts of the ride, or the vet checks.  If there is a ride where in 3 years, 
6 horses are injured and 1 dies and 2 or 3 others come close on a 
particular section then it is possible that changes could be made that 
could reduce that risk considerably.

Karen
in NV



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