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RE: [RC] heavy riders? - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVMI seriously doubt that even the most brilliant group appropriate scientists could answer this question. Susan G. has long maintained that the field experiments she did show that rider weight does not matter, it is just the weight of the horse. I had a heated discussion about this with her a year or so ago. Nope, nope, nope----and if I ever left you with the impression that rider weight doesn't matter, then mea culpa. My opinion was (and is) that: 1) Total mass (rider plus horse) matters more than how the mass is divided between horse and rider (at least within reasonable limits); 2) That while total energy costs for added mass increases in a linear function if the mass is more or less over the center of gravity, appropriately conditioned horses are able to supply those additional energy requirements and maintain metabolic integrity; and that body condition score has a close relationship with the ability to deliver the energy requirements, meaning that excessively thin horses are in negative energy balance and less able to deliver the work requirement without developing metabolic failure; 3) That a well-conditioned animal is capable of carrying up to 30% of his own bodyweight in the form of added rider weight and still performing well within a single, 100-mile event; understanding that differing terrain (ie, a flat course instead of a technical mountain course) or ambient conditions (specifically, high humidity) may affect this result; and that career longevity was not and could not be extrapolated from a single event; 4) That as total mass increases over a particular limit, the increase in biomechanical stress is predictably more likely to result in lameness failure. This result may also be a variable strongly affected by differing terrain, and to a lesser extent by ambient conditions. So it's not that rider weight "doesn't matter"---it's that there are other factors that are equally or more important in calculating total energy and biomechanical costs. I would not be in the least surprised if rider skill was also a factor---it was one effect we attempted to include as a data set, but could not with any accuracy, and thus omitted it entirely. Susan Garlinghouse, DVM =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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