Re: [RC] RE : Its not the distance - Truman Prevatt
Leonard,
While the Pan Am was a tragedy and should be considered, it was only
one of many deaths in the US this year and I suspect when the smoke
clears, not all the riders were burning the course. In my experience it
is not necessarily the front runners that are getting into trouble, its
horses from the front of the pack to the back of the pack. So we need
to understand the whole problem not just one incident.
I
read your debate with very much attention
: shorter loops, longer holds, more rider's education, etc... But...
You
should have a very deep look at the
detailed results of the PAC.
Look at the speed
, loop by loop, of the competitors that were eliminated. It is very
easy to
make conclusion. This is the speed that kills, not the distance.
I
counted around 10 horses that were
eliminated M or L that were cruising at more than 17Kph during the
second loop.
If my souvenirs are correct, this was a loop with many single trail, up
and
downs, bumps, difficult terrain, while the third one started with long
portions
of flat roads but with a long ascent at the end. Steph was cruising at
around 15Kph
on this second loop, Ihad difficulties with my mad teenie and could not
safely
follow her at that speed ad I thought that she was already going fast.
Figure
out at 17 or even 19Kph. It was written that, except if you have a
perfect
horse well controlled and who can play in this kind of difficulties,
the pull ratio
will be high. It is too bad that we don't have the recovery time for
each
loop. This would give us even more information on the relative
condition of the
horses.
