For the 4 years-40km and 5 years-60km, there is a maximum speed.
For 6 years on 90km, there are two competitions, one with a max set speed and one with free speed.
But this is not the most important item in the equation :
-in the 6 years final, horses are ranked according to a point system ( 0, 1.. up to 4 points if I remember well)
- 1 point for recovering to 56BPM in less than 10min
- 1 point for the gaits (attitude at the trotting, energy, quality, etc...)
- 1 point for the speed in the 5% (not sure) of the winner
- 1 point for the sped in the 10% (not sure neither but I will check) of the winner
4 points eans an 'elite', 3 'excellent, 2 ' very good', 1 'good', 0 qualified
several of the french champions came from the young horse finals.
one has to know also that the young horse events are organized all year round across France to give everyone the chance to compete without trailering horses too far away. these regional event are at the same time qualifying event for the finals in Uzes.
also every time your horse complete a qulifying race, the owner receives incentive money (something like 100 euros for a successful 60km) which is nice to pay the gas.
Hope this helps to feed your debate... now I better go riding
Leonard, Belgium
This is the final ride of the season for this batch of young (4,5,6
yr old) horses - they have to progressively qualify for these rides
and the older ones have been progressively qualifying over 1 or more
seasons. Initially the younger horses must qualify over short
distances with MAXIMUM speeds imposed. France's young horse program
is not about racing young horses, it is about qualifying and
producing mature endurance horses.
I don't know if this final ride has maximum speeds imposed for the
youngest horses, but the previous qualifying rides do.
Anybody out there know the full answer to Kim's questions?
