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Re: [RC] re: speed at multidays - heidiNot enough hours in the day for that I think! LOL Actually, I think we just have such a big population in the West, RM's would have to have 6 vets at a ride not to have lines. I've gotta agree with those who have chimed in from the SE and elsewhere. There is no excuse for being in a vet line for more than a few minutes. If people are in line longer than that, something is not working right. One possibility that has already been mentioned is the start times. I can't even IMAGINE trying to vet a large ride where the start times were not staggered! How much they need to be staggered depends on the terrain, how far between vet checks, length and number of loops, etc.--but basically, you need to figure out about how fast your fastest LDs are going to go, and how fast your slowest 50s are going to go, and make it so that the fast LDs either don't catch the slow 50s at all, or if they do, not til purtnear the end of the LD. Same principle for staggering the 50 behind a longer distance. If you have a new ride and you don't quite get it right the first year, pay attention and adjust the start times for subsequent years. Another thing that leads to congestion at vet checks is how you have the traffic flow through the check. Every check is a bit different--if you are in doubt, have some experienced riders come walk the routes through the checks with you to help decide where to do what. A third thing that is a problem is vets that don't have a good exam routine down. If they are constantly going from one end of the horse to the other and back again, they will be slow. New vets should be mentored by experienced vets to learn a routine. If the vet starts with all of the "front" parameters and works back, the exam can be very fast. If there is a CRI being done, most of the exam can be done in the time it takes to wait for the 2nd pulse, and then one can check gut sounds after counting the 2nd pulse while the stethoscope is still in the ears. A couple of experienced vets can whip through a bunch of horses pretty quickly. Also, if a horse has a problem, and there are people waiting, the vets need to learn to put that horse to the side and get the others through, instead of standing there and conducting a thorough lameness exam on a horse they are pulling anyway, while everybody else's clock is ticking away. The number of vets you need is partly due to the number of entries, but is also due to trail layout. Some courses require more vets simply because the same vets can't get from Point A to Point B before the horses do. Rides with large entries should always have 2 vets (or more!) at any check at the time that the bulk of the horses are coming through--first vet checks in particular can be problems if they are undermanned. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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