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Boy Kat.  You surely do know how to get a good discussion going :)

Several posters have truly nailed the problem and along with it, a huge
misconception.  Originally "Endurance" was not a RACE.  It was a GET 'ER
DONE.  Even back then, the first horse to accomplish the task over a given
course on a given day was considered the "winner" but did that fact make
"Endurance" a "race"?  Maybe yes, maybe no.  Nevertheless, the true
intention of the founders of "Endurance" was and is embodied in the "Best
Condition" award, not the first place award.

Truman was right when he said, "The FEI championship rides are what they
are - they are a race."   This is exactly where the international sport has
gone wrong.  The problem for us... all over the world... is to figure out a
way to get "Endurance" back to being about enduring instead of about coming
in first.  If we don't, we WILL lose our sport because it will be
perceived, and rightly so, as animal abuse.  The rumblings are already
afoot.  So some thoughts:

1a) As soon as each horse pulses down for its completion, that horse must
stand for a veterinary inspection akin to a Best Condition judging.  At the
end of the day, the team with the top veterinary score wins the Gold, not
the team with the fastest combined times.  For those who blanch at the
subjective nature of this test, note that the winners in Dressage, Ice
Skating and Carriage Driving are crowned based on just such subjective
judging and nobody is pissing and moaning about THAT (except for the
criticism of the French skating judges).  There is no need to consider
weight carried as that is set as a parameter of the race itself.  No points
added or subtracted for completion times either.
or
1b) Each horse pulled at a WEG would be assigned a code in the same fashion
we assign L, M, RO here.  However, the codes used wouldn't reflect the
immediate cause of the pull but rather the nature of the pull with the
objective being to identify the overriding of the horse.  I'm no vet so I
don't know exactly what protocol would make sense here but I can identify
two extremes.  If a horse cuts its fetlock on the course, that per se
doesn't indicate overriding but if a horse can't pulse down, that is
clearly a case of the horse being asked for more than it can deliver on
that day.  If two horses from a country receive "overridden" pulls, ALL
that country's horses would be disqualified AND that country would be
banned from the next WEG - no exceptions.  To paraphrase Kat, the FEI needs
to send the message that if a country can't find RIDERS WHO KNOW HOW TO
FINISH, it has no business being at a WEG.

2) I am appalled at the blase acceptance of *any* FEI COC.  In which other
disciplines do the organizers of international competition dictate to all
the countries of the world how they must pick their representatives?  That
decision is left to each country as well it should be.  So if Jamaica wants
to field a bobsled team, more power to them and their guts.  The COC must
be eliminated.  It is an unconscionable intrusion into each country's
sovereign right to select its own representatives.

3) Imposing completion requirements may work if formulated and enforced BY
EACH COUNTRY, but as an FEI restriction, it is inappropriate (see #2 above).

4)  Bob suggested a 225 mile/3 day event, or something along those lines.
If the winner is the team with high vet scores for the three days combined,
great.  Otherwise, it will be as Truman said, just moving the "'Katie bar
the door flat out race' to the last race in the series".



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