Re: Best Condition

["Susan Evans Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

>From where I can see it it is the light weight that is being discriminated
>against.  Again the ratio will take care of the heavy horse.  I do not see
>what the argument is with the heavy horse.  Why would this discriminate
them?
> The rule is not accurately correct as it is.  And I still agree that if
>there needs to be one then it should be based on percentage.

Well, one of the problems is that you can two horses carrying the same
percentage but still not necessarily working equally as hard.  For example,
let's say you have an 800-lb horse carrying a 160-lb rider with tack, or 20%
ratio.  Take another horse that weighs 1200 pounds and carrying 240 lbs,
also 20%.  Did both of these horses have exactly the same workload?
Probably not.  Even looking ONLY at energetics, the larger horse would have
to expend 50% more energy to travel exactly the same distance at exactly the
same speed---yet the larger horse doesn't have 50% more muscle, a 50% larger
digestive system to fuel those requirements, or 50% larger anything else.
That's totally aside from the biomechanics of the increased concussion from
the greater load (assuming both riders rode equally balanced).

Let's take that same 1200-lb horse and put a teeny-weeny 120-lb rider on
him, a piddley 10% ratio.  If we gave points based on the ratio, this horse
should get creamed because he's carrying so little.  But again,
energetically if you crunch the numbers, he still had to expend 37% more
energy than did the horse carrying a 20% ratio.  The energetics numbers are
based on Pagan's published formula for energy expenditure, by the way, I
didn't just make them up.

I truly appreciate your wanting to find a better way to judge BC, because I
agree with you that the current system is not a fair one.  But before we
propose replacing the existing system with a better one, I think we need to
define one that truly is accurate and fair without becoming overly
burdensome to ride management, don't you?  And unfortunately, the rider
weight ratio issue just doesn't pan out in the statistics or once you factor
in the physiology issues.

Still, great thread....(but then, I'm biased)> :-)

Susan Garlinghouse



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