Re: [RC] What's in a Name (was: 'Grand Prix' style, etc.) - FXLivestock
In a message dated 6/24/2007 9:27:06 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
stephteeter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
for
clarity's sake, the competition was not stopped 30 minutes after the
first finisher. Any rider that was still on course was allowed
to finish that loop. From the results, there's a 90 minute
time difference between first and last riders to cross the finish
line. Riders that were on loop 6 rode to the finish and stopped.
Riders that were on loop 5 rode to vetgate 5 and
stopped.
Are riders who do not finish the entire course given a DNF? In FEI
will this be distinguished from a pull due to lameness or metabolics. I
would be curious how the riders that were stopped before the finish felt,
especially because there was nothing wrong with their horse.
How does one lay out a strategy to try to finish only 30 minutes after the
1st place horse? It is one thing to be able to train to finish in certain
number of hours but how do you do it with so many unknowns, especially if a
course is new and you don't have previous years results to train by.
Having to stay x number of minutes behind the leader during a race so
you can earn a completion certainly adds another layer/stress to
racing. One thing for sure is if this became common place for racing is, I
would send out a rabbit who would have no chance of finishing and see how many
other competitors chased the rabbit to stay within so many minutes of that rider
to avoid elimination. I bet you could get rid of a lot of competition that
way :)
By the way, if this were in effect at Warriors Waterhunt yesterday, nobody
BUT the winner would have earned a completion :).
This may not work so bad for "racing" in FEI. I am sure that at big
races there is really not that much of a time difference between placings.
When I looked at the results from Rubiers, I think there was only an
hour and definitely less than two hours between first and last place.
We are talking about over 70 riders that completed the course. Many times
in our rides there is two hours between 1 and 10 place. We are just
talking apples and oranges here.
It certainly is one more difference that show that endurance riding at
the national level and endurance riding at the international level are becoming
two very different sports.
