But to throw it wide open would lead to abuses. Under good conditions on
reasonable trail, the 4 and 1/6 mph rate seems reasonalbe. In most of the
rides I have attended there is about 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours of hold for a 50
and about 2 and 1/2 to 3 and 1/2 for hours for a 100. As I see it there
are three "reasonable opitons". The cleanest to implement is to keep the
current 12 hours per 50 rule. If one allows exceptions, who is going to be
the final judge that the exception was justified?
A second option is to only count ride time against the time allotment.
This would allow management and the vets to play with the hold time to
provide better protection to the horse. The hold times could be increased
without causes the horses to speed up to finish.
A third option, which is somewhat a hybrid is to extend the trail open
time by a time equal the difference between the hold times and the average
of say 1 hour per 50 miles. This way if the vets wanted 3 one hour holds
on a 50 mile ride then the maximum elapsed time would be increased by 2
hours to 14. Similarly, if four hours was the hold time for a 100 the ride
time would be increased by one hour to 26 hours. While this sounds good on
the surface it could be a pain in the neck for ride management. On rides
that close the checks, e.g. the OD, based on the pro-rated 4.166666... mph
this could be a management nightmare if the vets decided to slow down the
pace by extending the hold times.
Interesting questions. What are the current thoughts of our directors?
Truman
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The race is not always to the swift, but to those that keep running.
Truman and Mystic "The Horse from HELL" Storm
prevatt@lds.loral.com - Sarasota, Florida
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