Re: DUBAI - infos found in UAE Newspaper

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 98-11-26 10:43:57 EST, rides2far@juno.com writes:

<< Hope they give the horses a chance to get a look at all this stuff in
 advance.  I remember at the North American at Flagstaff they had a big
 scaffold over the finish line with floodlights aiming down the
 trail...the horses would come out of the dark and those lights would hit
 them and everyone would chear and 1/2 of them just stopped dead from the
 shock of it.
  >>

I reviewed the Flagstaff tape about 3 weeks ago trying to find some footage
for a friend, and didn't see ANY horses stop at the finish on the tape--don't
remember them doing so from when I was there, either.  I was British team vet,
and I know both my riders came in in a 6-way horse race in the dark, and the
horses never faltered a bit.  Watched several horses ahead of them who had no
difficulties, but obviously with my riders in, I had work to do elsewhere and
did not get to watch the later ones.  They had a couple of poles on either
side of the trail with a string of fairly dim lightbulbs suspended from them
across the trail.  We used some of those really tall light towers at the Pan
Am in Bend, and the horses likewise did not have any problem with those--the
light came from high up and was directed downward.  As a rider, I know I have
had difficulties at rides where there have been strong halogen lights placed
at the finish line, about 4' off the ground, and aimed down the trail directly
into our faces--horses can't see the ground for the glare, and it is really
tough to ride right into the face of that...  The ride that did this stopped
after I complained about it--still used the lights, but faced them away from
the trail to use for vetting.

Heidi