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First, P&R person or a vet, it's still a warm body that may or may not be 
available.  Two, as I understand it the vet has the final say in when a 
horse completes or their pulse is down, so the need for a vet is still 
there.  I *believe* that any competitor can request that the vet check their 
horse's HR if for some reason they beg to differ with the P&R person -- I 
may be wrong, but that is how I would expect the system to work.  Third, now 
instead of having a nice safe finish line, we will start having to find a 
finish line where you can also set up a crew area (which means parking for 
trucks - cause we can't carry water more than 10 feet), got to get those 
horses down before they can start the trek to the "real VC" area, so 
hundreds of gallons of water are now dumped at the finish line?  I know, I 
know we can move them on down the road,,, but the same problem persists, you 
have to have a safe finish line where horses can have an area to stop AND 
and area where they can be "crewed" to get their pulse back down, AND then 
they can go get the rest of the completion?
I do not think we should start talking about how it's done in other areas of 
the world, without taking a look at the whole picture.  I was told at last 
years BSF ride by someone who does a lot of international riding that "it is 
becoming common practice to -treat(i.e. fluids)- horses following 
completion, regardless of the need".  So, maybe their (the rest of the 
world) idea / standards of "fit to continue" is not necessarily the same as 
ours? 

What are we really trying to fix with this rule change?  Out of how many 
starts were there horses actually treated at the end of a ride, and out of 
that number how many were horses that were not down at 30 min?  How many 
were problems the next day, the next week?  We do not know, AND we probably 
will never know.  Just because a few people have said that the Horse Welfare 
Group hasn't done anything, doesn;t mean that they have to issue new rules.  
Gosh you would think this is Congress -- Got to show the people at home that 
we actually do something here in Washington so let's pass a couple of 
laws.... 

Having a flustrating day at work -- can you tell? 

thanx eric 


Diane Trefethen writes: 

> Several writers have complained about the logistical changes that they 
> think would need to be made if the final pulse time were reduced to 30 
> minutes.  Three of these complaints are invalid. 
>
> 1) You'd need a vet at the finish line and that would reduce the number of 
> vets back at camp and lead to longer lines at the vetting area.
>  - You don't need a vet to take a final pulse, just a P&R person. 
>
> 2) Because you only have 30 minutes, you'd need to move the finish line 
> closer to camp, possibly FROM a safe place to race to the finish TO a much 
> more dangerous one.
>  - Why move?  Finish line can stay where it is safe.  With only 30 
> minutes, you don't NEED to go back to camp before a P&R person verifies 
> your horse is down.  After a half hour, the P&R person writes the then 
> current pulse on your card and THEN you go back to camp for the vet to 
> check your horse. 
>
> 3) At big rides, there are often big lines waiting for a vet and it can 
> often take over 30 minutes just to get through the line.
>  - Again, final pulse does NOT have to be recorded by a vet!  You don't 
> have to wait in the VET line to get your pulse recorded.  You wait in the 
> P&R line. 
>
>
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Eric Rueter
Rueter Consulting, Inc.
865.599.3594(C)
865.988.4134(W)
865.986.5966(H) 

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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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