I’ve been pondering this for a while.I think my conclusion is that weight
doesn’t matter except to spread awards around a bit – which I have
appreciated!But I don’t
think weight should even matter for BC, or at least be valued less.
Here’s how I look at it.My husband and I condition together and compete
together.He weighs 80 pounds more
than I do.His horse is conditioned
to carry his weight (our saddles and stuff are similar except I carry more
water) and mine is conditioned to carry my weight. Now unless we suddenly switched horses, I
don’t think either of us has an advantage.I don’t notice his horse more
tired after a ride than mine.
And as others have mentioned, many riders are on the ground,
sometimes even for significant periods of time.Not me unless we find and entirely
downhill ride!But if someone really
wants to “take advantage” this is as far as you have to go to give
your horse a benefit.Otherwise,
ride your ride as the horse was conditioned and weight really doesn’t
matter.
Maybe Susan G could do another weight study (or maybe
sufficient data is already available?) to put some of this to rest?The only reason I can think of for all
this scrambling for weight is to be in a smaller weight class (aside from the
BC issue).
So I don’t really care how many weight divisions we
have – 3 seems easier.But it
doesn’t seem to mean a whole lot to me!
