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RE: [RC] It's not the distance... - David LeBlancSusan Garlinghouse said: Okay, so if we assume that different horses need rest stops at different places and different times, and we are trusting the rider enough to determine when and where that is; and yet we don't trust the rider enough not to have them check in with a vet now and again....then what about the old concept of pulse and go's at certain places along the trail without an enforved wait time or full vet check to go along with it? I had some time to think about this on a recent ride - the loop was supposedly 22 miles, and I know I was running about 8 MPH for around an hour and a half, maybe longer (verified by forest service trail signs), but it took 4 1/2 hours to finish the loop. How long was it??? At any rate, I ran out of people water (I'd planned on 3 hours, not 4 1/2), and there wasn't much forage on the trail (plenty of water, thankfully). Sure would have been nice to have seen someone somewhere along in there with some hay, people water, and a way to go get a horse or a person help if they needed it. Whether they had a stethescope and were prepared to use it or not wouldn't have been important to me. One other suggestion to you ride managers out there - some of the ride maps have accurate distances to landmarks - e.g., 5.6 miles to first water. I really like that. Helps me pace, and figure out how much further to the vet check. I've always thought it would be fun to put distance signs at water stops - Cairo 4239, Albuquerque 815, Vet Check 10.2. I would be willing to bet that once Truman has collected and crunched the data, we're going to find that longer loops end up with horses in trouble more often, if for no other reason than the longer it is between when trouble starts and the time the vet sees the horse, the worse it is likely to be. Less often you see a vet, the longer the MTBV (mean time between vets <g>). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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