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Re: [RC] Mathew Mckay proposal - Jim Hollandoddfarm wrote: I myself have not jumped the band wagon on this proposal. Will I be flogged? Probably.....Truman, will you do the honors? "Forty Lashes With Dental Floss", as Joan would say! :) Jim, you yourself said that letting the riders call the shots while on the trail is not working and yet Dr. McKay proposes to do just that. He proposes to let riders continue, but only if they slow down because they are only going to get a completion. Who is going to police that?? By the way, does anyone know if his definition of completion includes mileage? Because if you pay to ride, and you complete, you had better get the mileage, don't you think? The only thing Matthew's proposal does is to reduce the INTENSITY LEVEL of competition at the highest level. It polices itself. NOTHING else changes. Has nothing to do with mileage. "Completion" in this proposal simply means you're no longer in the "Top Ten". Unless you are in the Top Ten, a rider will see NOTHING different from current rules. You still get a numerical place, and points and mileage as usual and you have 30 minutes at each Vet Check to recover. Keep in mind that if you are not in the Top Ten, then AERC points are the same, whether you are 11th or 101st. As I understand it, Matthew's proposal does not apply to Weight Divisions, so if you race for say, First Lightweight, you still have the regular 30 minutes to recover....no penalty. For example, you could get bumped out of the Top Ten for a recovery over 15 minutes, but STILL win First Lightweight and get your Weight Division and Completion Points as usual. If you RACE....run hard enough to be in the Top Ten overall, you would now have to temper your "racing inclination" with the knowledge that you have to meet a smaller "pulse window"...15 minutes...at every Vet Check and at the finish. If you miss one, you will still get completion miles and points just as you would if you finished but not IN the Top Ten. This would discourage overriding, but not take away the opportunity to race (or even learn to race) and lose your completion because you chose to do so. Race if you want to....but you must now condition your horse better, find a better horse, or ride slower to meet this criteria. All these are beneficial effects. If you do not ride in the Top Ten, this proposal simply would not apply to you...business as usual. Fit to continue is so much more appropriate for what we are trying to accomplish. If we want to tighten up the "pulse window" than make it tight. Give it some backbone. A compromise would be to put into place a 20 minute pulse time and those who don't make it, get pulled. Period. If the horse hasn't met that parameter, why in the world would we want to rely on the rider, (since you say that isn't working) to continue on but slow down? That doesn't make any sense. And for those who say their horse can't possibly make that window of opportunity for what ever reasons, I disagree. But Lisa, IMHO, it DOES make sense. Everybody has to "learn" this sport. It's difficult to run "up front" and still protect your horse. This proposal would make it easier for our vets...take some of the pressure off them when evaluating marginal horses. If a rider comes whooping into the first Vet Check with a horse that doesn't recover in 15 minutes, then that rider gets to relax and trail ride the rest of the day...no chance of a Top Ten, no point in going fast. Just finish and you get all benefits as usual except those associated with a Top Ten overall. Try again next time if you like. Self policing rule. I don't believe most members want to eliminate racing and a tighter pulse window that applies to everyone would elimnate a lot of horses that, although they have been completing with NO problems, will now be just "marginal" even at safe speeds for that horse. Here's an example: (With apologies to Flinn....no offense...Abe is a great little horse...I did a lot of his early training) Flinn Anderson's horse S.A. MR LINCOLN (aka "Abe") is a nice little Arabian that has over 1000 miles in competition with Flinn, including a 100 and a National Championship 50 mile completion. Abe is slow to recover normally, never in the Top Ten...but if you ride him within his capabilities, I think he could easily do multi-days without breaking a sweat. Abe would be one of those horses, and I know there are many others, who would be a marginal Endurance horse and might have difficulty meeting time criteria under harsh conditions if you lowered the pulse window to 20 minutes for everyone. Perhaps in the future, this would be worthwhile. IMHO, this is too radical a change and penalizes riders...and horses...who are NOT part of this problem. The horses that are truly able to compete should pass with flying colors, the ones that can't, will just have to go a little slower to begin with. I think we can all agree that any horse can do this discipline, therefore offering everyone the same opportunity to ride. But they can't all do it at the same level. That has to be accepted by riders who ride horses of different breeds. It all goes back to training and conditioning and if your horse can't go the speed and distance you want, either slow down or get another horse that can. How does that saying go? Lord, please help me accept what I cannot change....... That's certainly true, but we don't want to make it HARDER to participate in this sport and we want to keep it open to as many breeds as possible. I would be happy to ride under a pulse window of 15 minutes. Sunny has proven he can do that and consistently Top Ten....but not all horses can. At the TOP of the performance curve is where we have the problem. Yes, I'm sure horses who are "completers" get into trouble as well...but I don't believe dropping the pulse window to 20 minutes overall would fix that. If a horse isn't fit to continue within 20 minutes, how will 10 more minutes make him more fit?? It won't, of course....but on the other hand, the 30 minutes is an arbitrary number anyway. Why don't we just drop it to 10 minutes? I could meet that also, as could many Top Ten horses, but now it's just the elite horses who could play. I don't want to "change Endurance as we know it". I like it the way it is....but like NASCAR had to do, we need to add a "restrictor plate" in order to reduce the chance of a fatal "accident" at high speeds. Reread the proposal again and think about it.... Jim, Sun of Dimanche+, and Mahada Magic =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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