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Dear Bruce,

I am glad you are enjoying the humorous emails I am sending.  Wasn't that
kitty one hilarious?  I still find my self chuckling out loud every time I
think of him.  In my opinion it was even funnier than the Budweiser
Clydesdale snow fight.

On the 30 min change, I think some of your points could be valid.  I say
could because I haven't seen any studies or data to support the position
that by imposing a 30 min final pulse down, lives, or at least the quality
of lives, could be saved.  The first step is to review data to determine
which horses are having problems pulsing down, then check their records to
see how long they continue to participate (or live?) despite the lengthy
pulse downs.  If there is insufficient data, then the vets and ride
managements need to have the importance impressed on them of gathering that
data - horse name, rider name, time to reach criteria after crossing finish
line.  Assuming the data supports the contention that horses who frequently
take 30+ mins either die young or get progressively less stable
metabolically over time until they can no longer compete, then we would
have the statistical support we need to suggest that a 30 min limit is a
valid tool.  The second step would be to determine from the data the
percentage of such horses vs the percentage of horses who take 30+ mins and
don't die during their Endurance careers or directly after being retired.
I realize that a large percentage of the horses competing take less than 30
mins to recover so it is not the percentage of entries we need to look at
but the percentage of 30+ mins recoveries that fall into each category.
The third step would be to evaluate the probability of the rule change
positively impacting the ENDANGERED horses.  If the rule change only serves
to deny completions to horses who may just be slightly under the weather
while the abusers figure a way around it, like with drugs maybe, then
you've gone from bad to worse AND penalized the wrong people.

Heidi has stated that she knows of two horses who have died and who had
routinely taken a longer time to pulse down.  Without good data, we can't
tell whether those two are the tip of an 80% iceberg or represent only 2%
of such horses.  Remember, deaths carry an emotional impact that can
magnify their significance.  Each death hurts.  We remember.  But who
remembers all the horses who pulse down at 30+ and DON'T die till well
after retiring from Endurance?  At 80%, it would not be unreasonable to
assume Endurance had something to do with the deaths in which case the
lengthy pulse downs clearly CORRELATE with increased chance of death.  At
2%, such an assumption would be entirely unwarranted.  We need good data.

Agree:
I agree with both your points that if a horse that races to the finish
takes more than 30 mins to recover, then that horse has been overridden and
that any horse who HAS been overriden is more likely to take longer to
pulse down.  However, there are also horses who just don't pulse down as
well as others.  Maybe because of age, maybe conditioning, feed, not
feeling their best on that particular day.  Such horses are NOT the hangers
that Heidi has talked about.  Lord knows I've seen them too.  The horses I
am referring to have a longer recovery CURVE that gradually takes them to
their respective resting heart rates.  To dq such animals is in my opinion
an unnecessarily harsh and expensive penalty to impose.  In this regard, I
have a suggestion, a modification of the proposed rule.  Require any horse
that fails to meet criteria within 30 mins, to remain in the vet area for a
full hour with at least one  mandatory check at 45 mins and again at the
end of the hour.  ONE check at criteria AFTER the 30 mins would not be
sufficient.  Often horses that are in trouble metabolically yo-yo.  If the
45 min check is less than the 30 min check and the one hour check is at or
below criteria AND less than the 45 min check, the horse gets a completion.
 Otherwise it is disqualified.  Such a protocol shouldn't be too much
extra burden since we have been assured that most of the horses pulse down
within the 30 mins anyway. :)

Disagree:
Your argument that if 30 mins is sufficient at the vc's then why not at the
finish has two flaws.  One is succinctly addressed in the rules.  "Because
an equine at the finish line is not, in actuality, going on— ...the
standards for completion need not be as strict as those on the trail..."
The other is that the horse may have been properly conditioned for 45 miles
so 50 is a bit of a stretch (but won't be by the next ride because it will
have had additional conditioning).  Thus the rider not only loses a
completion for miscalculating his/her horse's condition to go 50 miles
instead of only 45 but it costs them upwards of $350 for the "lesson".  Too
harsh, in my opinion.

Your comments on adrenaline highs, though valid, beg the issue.  Yes I
mis-spoke; it is the endorphins, not adrenaline, that mask the pain.  My
point wasn't that ADRENALINE is a problem but that every excited horse
produces a natural anaesthetic which masks lameness and other general
discomfort, like the beginning of a colic.  A 30 min limit wouldn't catch
the jazzed up horses who have a bruised tendon but would nail the horses
with a naturally longer recovery curve.

Good suggestion:
"Maybe a compromise to your suggestion of a vet check between 30 and 60
minutes could include a pulse recovery before 30 minutes, and a lameness
eval between 30 and 60 to detect those horses that were indeed running in
pain?"

Great suggestion:
"An interesting test would be to perform a CRI on any horse that isn't
recovered by 30 minutes and see if he passes."  In conjunction with the 45
min and one hour re-checks, this could be an excellent tool for the vets
and riders to zero in on a horse with incipient problems... and yes, lead
to a dq on occasion.

Sincerely yours,
Prof Stork





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