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New Zealand Veterinary Journal Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tnzv20
Endurance riding and “scoring” endurance rides C.M. Kelly
a
a
17 Opawa Place, Palmerston North Published online: 23 Feb 2011.
To cite this article: C.M. Kelly (1977) Endurance riding and “scoring” endurance rides, New Zealand Veterinary Journal, 25:12, 393-394, DOI: 10.1080/00480169.1977.34465 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00480169.1977.34465
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
1977
393
NEW ZEALAND VETERINARY JOURNAL
Endurance riding and "scoring" endurance rldest
c. M. Kelly·
N.Z. vel. J. 1$: J9J·4
INTRODUcnON
Endurance riding is becoming a popular pastime in New Zealand. Interested riders have formed a "New Zealand En durance and Competitive Trail Riders Association Incorpo rated". Among other things they intend to standardize methods of judging, particularly for competitive trail rides. This is, of course, only one method and we can use it as a basis for future discussion of this relatively new endeavour.
Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 14:52 14 October 2014
DEFINmONS
The A.A.E.P. in its "Guide to Veterinary Service and Judging Equestrian Events" records that there are two types of ride, both designed to thoroughly test horses for stamina and physical condition - (I) the Competitive Trail Ride in which contestants travel a specified course and distance with a maximum time limit. judged on the horse's physical condition only, providing riders finish within the specified time, and (2) the Endurance Ride in which contestants travel a specified course and distance, fastest horse wins, providing it finishes in satisfactory condition. In the first the winner is judged on the fitness and soundess of the horse at the end of the ride. This is dependent to a large extent on the ability of the rideno judge speeds accurately and to stress the mount as little as possible. In the second, judging is somewhat easier - the rider with the fastest horse to finish the course wins the ride, providing of course the horse is not too exhausted. There is usually a prize for the "best conditioned" horse, which requires the judge to select the fittest horse to finish the course within a specified time. Although competitive trail rides are more difficult to judge, I believe they are the preferred type, unless competitors are thoroughly familiar with endurance riding. Nothing is more distressing to jUdges, spectactors and horses than an endurance ride with inexperienced competitors, many of whom extend unfit mounts at crazy speeds. An early endurance ride in Aus tralia ended in disaster with one horse dying and two others surviving after heroic treatment. Moreover, as a pUblic relations exercise. it was a failure since at that time endurance riding was a novelty and there had been much interest in the event. On the other hand, in competitive trail rides one can em phasise to competitors that the fastest horse home is not necessarily the winner. In many of these rides there is a prize for the first home as long as the horse is in satisfactory condition; however. since this prize is secondary to the main one, the contest is unlikely to develop into a race. METHODS
Overthe last 3 years, 4 competitive trail ridesofapproximately 50 miles in length have been run in the Manawatu area. The terrain is quite rough and hilly. Riders ascend and descend a total of 1900 metres. Time allowed for the ride is 53!.. hours, which includes a compulsory ~ lunch-break at the halfway point. The riders must average 16 km/h (lO mph) over the 5-hour period. Competitors taking longer incur penalty points. There is no advantage or disadvantage ifriders complete the course sooner than 5~ hours, unless there is a prize for the first rider home. Before the start of the ride all horses are examined, attention being paid to the horses shoeing, any lameness, previous injuries,
t Presented to the NZV A Conference 1977 * 17 Opawa Place. Palmerston North.
girth or saddle galls etc. Pulse, respsiratory rates and rectal
temperatures are taken. We have found that changes in rectal temperatures are a poor guide to impending exhaustion and tend to vary somewhat with the ambient temperature. Moreover they are time-consuming. For this reason rectal temperatures are normally taken only at a pre-ride examination. The riders are started at one minute intervals which allows adequate spacing for examination at the halfway and finish. There is a visual examination about 16 km after the start and 16 km after the halfway point when the horses have climbed 500 metres to the top of the ranges. Any horse appearing unduly distressed· at this stage is rested for as long as the veterinarian deems necessary. Riders are required to cover the last mile before the halfway and before the finish at a brisk trot. They are timed over these stretches. The reason for this is to prevent riders from resting their mounts just before the check-point. On arrival at the halfway point, the hOrses' heart and respiratory rates are taken and they are given a brief examination, attention being paid to shoeing, lacerations, ill-fitting gear etc. After a rest of20 minutes the horses are examined again, heart and respiratory rates taken and attention paid to any lameness which may have developed: 2S minutes later, after a rest period of 4S minutes the horses and riders start the second half of the journey. Heart and respiratory rates are again taken immedia tely after the horses finish the ride and after 20 minutes of rest when the 'horses are examined again for lameness etc. The ~eart and respiratory rates, time for each rider to com plete the ride, and other pertinent data are collated and entered on a large chart. RESULTS
In the first tWo rides, winners were "guestimated" by ex amining heart and respiratory rates, percent recovery of these after a period of rest, time taken for the ride etc. When asked by a competitor why he finished behind another competitor we were non-committal, and talked about different recovery rates or sOme such thing. We felt the whole situation was most unsatisfactory. In the two subsequent rides the scoring system was used and we found this was quicker, allowed for more objectivity, and gave a precise ranking of placings. It also enabled riders to see how they could improve on their performance in subsequent rides. Littewort & Hickman (S) used a modification ofthe "30% test" to assess fatigue in three-day-event horses. They used the for mula (a-b) - 30% where a = sum of heart and respiratory rates immediately after exercise (up to 12 km at speeds of from 16 to 32 km/h) and b the sum of heart and respiratory rates after 8 minutes of rest. They assumed that fatigued horses would not perform well in the trials and, because the placings in the trials did not correlate with the results of the test, they concluded this test was no use for detecting fatigue. I believe, however, their assumption that the more fatigued a horse is the less likely it is to perform well may be an erroneous one. Cenainly the reverse would not be correct, i.e. the fitter the horse the more likely it is to compete well at the Three-Day-Event trials. I believe it is fairly well established that if a horse's heart and respiratory rates immediately after exercise and after a period of rest are measured, the heart/respiratory rate ratio calculated and the horse's general demeanour is assessed, it is possible to differentiate a fatigued horse from an exhausted horse(2).(3). The problem arises when we want to determine which of a number of fatigued horses is the fittest. Which parameter do we
=
Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 14:52 14 October 2014
394
NEW ZEALAND VETERINARY JOURNAL
use to assess this? How much significance do we place on one parameter compared to another? Measurement of heart rate immediately after exercise and after a period of rest is a useful parameter in assessing fitness in man (7) and horses(3).(6). Witherington (8) recorded a tri-phasic post-exercise recovery of heart rate in racehorses. For the first ten minutes heart rates remained relatively high, slowing rapidly over the following ten minutes. The third recovery phase, at which the heart rate gradually returned to normal, took from one to several hours. On the basis of this information, a post-exercise examination at 20 minutes would seem logical. Pre-ride heart rates on the horses we examined were found to be very variable (32-56 beats per min.) and our findings were in agreement with those of Cardinet et 01. (3) and Barseleau(2) who noted that exhausted horses appeared to have extremely shallow and fast respiration. The respiratory system appeared to meet extra demand by increasing the rate at the expense of depth of respiration. Gillespie et 01. (4) noted that horses have excess ventilation reserve to meet their gas-exchange needs during maximal exercise. They suggested that a major cause of in creased respiratory rate, particularly on hot days, is to enable greater heat-loss and they considered respiratory rates only increase greatly when the ambient temperature is high and cardiovascular changes fail to meet the heat flow needs. For these reasons we considered that the respiratory rate should have less weighting than the heart rate when assessing horses' fitness. Horses were divided into three groups, those with heart rates of greater than 60 beats per minute 20 minutes after arrival at halfway; those with heart rates of greater than 60 beats per minute 20 minutes after the finish, and those with heart rates less than 60 beats per minute 20 minutes after the finish. The heart and respiratory rates of individual horses were averaged for the TABLE I: AVERAGE HEART RATE (HR) AND RESPIRATORY RATE (RR) OF ENDURANCE HORSES Halfway Finish Start arrival
+ 20mins
arrival
+ 20mins
H.R. R.R. H.R. R.R. H.R. R.R. H.R. R.R. H.R. R.R. n S7 17 SO IS 41 44 49 99 38 17 84 79 21 32 18 108 68 18 92 5S 59 38 2S 8 109 8S 83 42 94 71 26 17 63
three groups. (Fig. I). There are a number of points of interest: l. Pre-ride values have not been correlated with subsequent performance. . 2. Although a number of very unfit horses completed the ride, heart rates of the three groups did not differ much im mediately post-exercise, however the difference was quite marked after 20 minutes rest. In other words as far as heart rate was concerned, the difference between the fit and the unfit horses appeared to be in the speed of recovery after a period of rest rather than the value immediately post-exercise. 3. The difference, both relative and absolute, in the combined heart and respiratory rates between the groups was more marked at the finish than at halfway. Thus, in order to accentuate differences between fit and unfit horses, it would be reasonable to give more weight to values for heart and respiratory rates at the finish than at the halfway point. 4. If a horse's heart rate is above 60 beats per minute after 20 minutes of rest at the halfway mark then that horse is unlikely to perform well subsequently. The horses in this third group were all well behind time at the finish. If these
VOL.2S
horses were pushed too hard one might expect problems. In the last three rides, we advised competitors whose mounts had heart rates greater than 65 after 20 minutes rest at the halfway mark that they would be unlikely to complete the ride, and suggested they retired. These riders and riders of horses with heart rates greater than 65 beats per minute after 20 minutes of rest at the finish were not given an official placing. We have noticed a marked improvement in the general fitness of horses with each successive ride. The prospect of elimination because of an unfit horse appeared to be an incentive to com petitors to enter only horses which have been properly prepared. The scoring system is very simple. All points are penalty points. The rider with the least points wins the ride. Penalty points are allotted as follows:I. Time points: 7 points for each minute after 5~ hours. 2. Up to 80 points are allowed for incorrect shoeing, old shoes etc. In most cases riders are not penalized for this; in a few cases. where horses are shod with old shoes, badly needing removal or falling off during the ride, the whole 80 points might be given. 3. Up to 50 points may be given for girth galls, saddle sores, etc., if they are incurred on the ride due to ill-fitting gear. 4. The sum of the heart and respiratory rates of each horse at both halfway checks are added to twice the sum of the heart and respiratory rates at both the finish checks. This system has the following advantages:(i) More weight is placed on the heart rate than the respi ratory rate since respiratory rates are less than heart rates. (ii) More importance is attached to heart and respiratory rates at the finish which tends to spread the placings. (iii) The system is simple and one can quickly calculate placings. (iv) Competitors are not tempted to treat the ride as a race, so it is unlikely that the mounts will be unduly stressed. (v) I tprovides an o.bjective and standardized approach to the judging of competitive endurance rides. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I appreciate the help given to me by my colleagues Messrs. L. Anderson. B. Drayton, R. Wyburn an4 particularly Dr. Bob Holmes. REFERENCES (I) American Associalion of Equine Praclilioners (June 1974). Glli« lor V~leriltlUJ' SeI'V;~e and Judging 01 Equeslrian E~nts. p.l. (2) Barsaleau. R. 8. (1966): Clinical observation ofendurance horses. Proc. 12," IfIfEP. p.13.17. • (3) Cardine!. G. H.: Fowler. M. E.: Tyler. W. S. (1963): Hean ralesand respiralory rales for evalualing performance in horses during endurance lrail ride competilion. J.Am.vel.medAss. I4J: 1303·9. (4) Gillespie.J. R.: Kaulfman. A.: Sleers. J.: While. L. (197S): Anerial Blood Gases and pH during Long·Dislance Running in !he Horse. 'roc. lsI lnl. Symp. Eq. Ha~malolot.Y: 450-68. (5) Lilliewon. M. C. G.: Hidman.J.( 1969): Analysisofa Proposed Test 10 Assess Fatigue in Horses. Eq. vel. J. I: 231·7. (6) Sicwan. G. A. (1972): Drugs Performance and Responses 10 Exeldse in !he Racehorse. I. Physiological observations on Ihe cardiac and respiralory responses. AilS. vel. J. 48: S37·543. (7) Winlon. F. R. and Bayliss. l. E. (l9SS): Hllman '''ysio/0t.Y 4!h Ed. p.9. J . .t: H. Churchill lid .. LOndon. (8) Wilheringlon. D. H. (1971): Observalions on the Hean Rale of Thoroughbreds. Eq. vel. J. J: 99·101.
••••••••••••••••••••
New Zealand Veterinary Journal Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tnzv20
Endurance riding and “scoring” endurance rides C.M. Kelly
a
a
17 Opawa Place, Palmerston North Published online: 23 Feb 2011.
To cite this article: C.M. Kelly (1977) Endurance riding and “scoring” endurance rides, New Zealand Veterinary Journal, 25:12, 393-394, DOI: 10.1080/00480169.1977.34465 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00480169.1977.34465
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
1977
393
NEW ZEALAND VETERINARY JOURNAL
Endurance riding and "scoring" endurance rldest
c. M. Kelly·
N.Z. vel. J. 1$: J9J·4
INTRODUcnON
Endurance riding is becoming a popular pastime in New Zealand. Interested riders have formed a "New Zealand En durance and Competitive Trail Riders Association Incorpo rated". Among other things they intend to standardize methods of judging, particularly for competitive trail rides. This is, of course, only one method and we can use it as a basis for future discussion of this relatively new endeavour.
Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 14:52 14 October 2014
DEFINmONS
The A.A.E.P. in its "Guide to Veterinary Service and Judging Equestrian Events" records that there are two types of ride, both designed to thoroughly test horses for stamina and physical condition - (I) the Competitive Trail Ride in which contestants travel a specified course and distance with a maximum time limit. judged on the horse's physical condition only, providing riders finish within the specified time, and (2) the Endurance Ride in which contestants travel a specified course and distance, fastest horse wins, providing it finishes in satisfactory condition. In the first the winner is judged on the fitness and soundess of the horse at the end of the ride. This is dependent to a large extent on the ability of the rideno judge speeds accurately and to stress the mount as little as possible. In the second, judging is somewhat easier - the rider with the fastest horse to finish the course wins the ride, providing of course the horse is not too exhausted. There is usually a prize for the "best conditioned" horse, which requires the judge to select the fittest horse to finish the course within a specified time. Although competitive trail rides are more difficult to judge, I believe they are the preferred type, unless competitors are thoroughly familiar with endurance riding. Nothing is more distressing to jUdges, spectactors and horses than an endurance ride with inexperienced competitors, many of whom extend unfit mounts at crazy speeds. An early endurance ride in Aus tralia ended in disaster with one horse dying and two others surviving after heroic treatment. Moreover, as a pUblic relations exercise. it was a failure since at that time endurance riding was a novelty and there had been much interest in the event. On the other hand, in competitive trail rides one can em phasise to competitors that the fastest horse home is not necessarily the winner. In many of these rides there is a prize for the first home as long as the horse is in satisfactory condition; however. since this prize is secondary to the main one, the contest is unlikely to develop into a race. METHODS
Overthe last 3 years, 4 competitive trail ridesofapproximately 50 miles in length have been run in the Manawatu area. The terrain is quite rough and hilly. Riders ascend and descend a total of 1900 metres. Time allowed for the ride is 53!.. hours, which includes a compulsory ~ lunch-break at the halfway point. The riders must average 16 km/h (lO mph) over the 5-hour period. Competitors taking longer incur penalty points. There is no advantage or disadvantage ifriders complete the course sooner than 5~ hours, unless there is a prize for the first rider home. Before the start of the ride all horses are examined, attention being paid to the horses shoeing, any lameness, previous injuries,
t Presented to the NZV A Conference 1977 * 17 Opawa Place. Palmerston North.
girth or saddle galls etc. Pulse, respsiratory rates and rectal
temperatures are taken. We have found that changes in rectal temperatures are a poor guide to impending exhaustion and tend to vary somewhat with the ambient temperature. Moreover they are time-consuming. For this reason rectal temperatures are normally taken only at a pre-ride examination. The riders are started at one minute intervals which allows adequate spacing for examination at the halfway and finish. There is a visual examination about 16 km after the start and 16 km after the halfway point when the horses have climbed 500 metres to the top of the ranges. Any horse appearing unduly distressed· at this stage is rested for as long as the veterinarian deems necessary. Riders are required to cover the last mile before the halfway and before the finish at a brisk trot. They are timed over these stretches. The reason for this is to prevent riders from resting their mounts just before the check-point. On arrival at the halfway point, the hOrses' heart and respiratory rates are taken and they are given a brief examination, attention being paid to shoeing, lacerations, ill-fitting gear etc. After a rest of20 minutes the horses are examined again, heart and respiratory rates taken and attention paid to any lameness which may have developed: 2S minutes later, after a rest period of 4S minutes the horses and riders start the second half of the journey. Heart and respiratory rates are again taken immedia tely after the horses finish the ride and after 20 minutes of rest when the 'horses are examined again for lameness etc. The ~eart and respiratory rates, time for each rider to com plete the ride, and other pertinent data are collated and entered on a large chart. RESULTS
In the first tWo rides, winners were "guestimated" by ex amining heart and respiratory rates, percent recovery of these after a period of rest, time taken for the ride etc. When asked by a competitor why he finished behind another competitor we were non-committal, and talked about different recovery rates or sOme such thing. We felt the whole situation was most unsatisfactory. In the two subsequent rides the scoring system was used and we found this was quicker, allowed for more objectivity, and gave a precise ranking of placings. It also enabled riders to see how they could improve on their performance in subsequent rides. Littewort & Hickman (S) used a modification ofthe "30% test" to assess fatigue in three-day-event horses. They used the for mula (a-b) - 30% where a = sum of heart and respiratory rates immediately after exercise (up to 12 km at speeds of from 16 to 32 km/h) and b the sum of heart and respiratory rates after 8 minutes of rest. They assumed that fatigued horses would not perform well in the trials and, because the placings in the trials did not correlate with the results of the test, they concluded this test was no use for detecting fatigue. I believe, however, their assumption that the more fatigued a horse is the less likely it is to perform well may be an erroneous one. Cenainly the reverse would not be correct, i.e. the fitter the horse the more likely it is to compete well at the Three-Day-Event trials. I believe it is fairly well established that if a horse's heart and respiratory rates immediately after exercise and after a period of rest are measured, the heart/respiratory rate ratio calculated and the horse's general demeanour is assessed, it is possible to differentiate a fatigued horse from an exhausted horse(2).(3). The problem arises when we want to determine which of a number of fatigued horses is the fittest. Which parameter do we
=
Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 14:52 14 October 2014
394
NEW ZEALAND VETERINARY JOURNAL
use to assess this? How much significance do we place on one parameter compared to another? Measurement of heart rate immediately after exercise and after a period of rest is a useful parameter in assessing fitness in man (7) and horses(3).(6). Witherington (8) recorded a tri-phasic post-exercise recovery of heart rate in racehorses. For the first ten minutes heart rates remained relatively high, slowing rapidly over the following ten minutes. The third recovery phase, at which the heart rate gradually returned to normal, took from one to several hours. On the basis of this information, a post-exercise examination at 20 minutes would seem logical. Pre-ride heart rates on the horses we examined were found to be very variable (32-56 beats per min.) and our findings were in agreement with those of Cardinet et 01. (3) and Barseleau(2) who noted that exhausted horses appeared to have extremely shallow and fast respiration. The respiratory system appeared to meet extra demand by increasing the rate at the expense of depth of respiration. Gillespie et 01. (4) noted that horses have excess ventilation reserve to meet their gas-exchange needs during maximal exercise. They suggested that a major cause of in creased respiratory rate, particularly on hot days, is to enable greater heat-loss and they considered respiratory rates only increase greatly when the ambient temperature is high and cardiovascular changes fail to meet the heat flow needs. For these reasons we considered that the respiratory rate should have less weighting than the heart rate when assessing horses' fitness. Horses were divided into three groups, those with heart rates of greater than 60 beats per minute 20 minutes after arrival at halfway; those with heart rates of greater than 60 beats per minute 20 minutes after the finish, and those with heart rates less than 60 beats per minute 20 minutes after the finish. The heart and respiratory rates of individual horses were averaged for the TABLE I: AVERAGE HEART RATE (HR) AND RESPIRATORY RATE (RR) OF ENDURANCE HORSES Halfway Finish Start arrival
+ 20mins
arrival
+ 20mins
H.R. R.R. H.R. R.R. H.R. R.R. H.R. R.R. H.R. R.R. n S7 17 SO IS 41 44 49 99 38 17 84 79 21 32 18 108 68 18 92 5S 59 38 2S 8 109 8S 83 42 94 71 26 17 63
three groups. (Fig. I). There are a number of points of interest: l. Pre-ride values have not been correlated with subsequent performance. . 2. Although a number of very unfit horses completed the ride, heart rates of the three groups did not differ much im mediately post-exercise, however the difference was quite marked after 20 minutes rest. In other words as far as heart rate was concerned, the difference between the fit and the unfit horses appeared to be in the speed of recovery after a period of rest rather than the value immediately post-exercise. 3. The difference, both relative and absolute, in the combined heart and respiratory rates between the groups was more marked at the finish than at halfway. Thus, in order to accentuate differences between fit and unfit horses, it would be reasonable to give more weight to values for heart and respiratory rates at the finish than at the halfway point. 4. If a horse's heart rate is above 60 beats per minute after 20 minutes of rest at the halfway mark then that horse is unlikely to perform well subsequently. The horses in this third group were all well behind time at the finish. If these
VOL.2S
horses were pushed too hard one might expect problems. In the last three rides, we advised competitors whose mounts had heart rates greater than 65 after 20 minutes rest at the halfway mark that they would be unlikely to complete the ride, and suggested they retired. These riders and riders of horses with heart rates greater than 65 beats per minute after 20 minutes of rest at the finish were not given an official placing. We have noticed a marked improvement in the general fitness of horses with each successive ride. The prospect of elimination because of an unfit horse appeared to be an incentive to com petitors to enter only horses which have been properly prepared. The scoring system is very simple. All points are penalty points. The rider with the least points wins the ride. Penalty points are allotted as follows:I. Time points: 7 points for each minute after 5~ hours. 2. Up to 80 points are allowed for incorrect shoeing, old shoes etc. In most cases riders are not penalized for this; in a few cases. where horses are shod with old shoes, badly needing removal or falling off during the ride, the whole 80 points might be given. 3. Up to 50 points may be given for girth galls, saddle sores, etc., if they are incurred on the ride due to ill-fitting gear. 4. The sum of the heart and respiratory rates of each horse at both halfway checks are added to twice the sum of the heart and respiratory rates at both the finish checks. This system has the following advantages:(i) More weight is placed on the heart rate than the respi ratory rate since respiratory rates are less than heart rates. (ii) More importance is attached to heart and respiratory rates at the finish which tends to spread the placings. (iii) The system is simple and one can quickly calculate placings. (iv) Competitors are not tempted to treat the ride as a race, so it is unlikely that the mounts will be unduly stressed. (v) I tprovides an o.bjective and standardized approach to the judging of competitive endurance rides. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I appreciate the help given to me by my colleagues Messrs. L. Anderson. B. Drayton, R. Wyburn an4 particularly Dr. Bob Holmes. REFERENCES (I) American Associalion of Equine Praclilioners (June 1974). Glli« lor V~leriltlUJ' SeI'V;~e and Judging 01 Equeslrian E~nts. p.l. (2) Barsaleau. R. 8. (1966): Clinical observation ofendurance horses. Proc. 12," IfIfEP. p.13.17. • (3) Cardine!. G. H.: Fowler. M. E.: Tyler. W. S. (1963): Hean ralesand respiralory rales for evalualing performance in horses during endurance lrail ride competilion. J.Am.vel.medAss. I4J: 1303·9. (4) Gillespie.J. R.: Kaulfman. A.: Sleers. J.: While. L. (197S): Anerial Blood Gases and pH during Long·Dislance Running in !he Horse. 'roc. lsI lnl. Symp. Eq. Ha~malolot.Y: 450-68. (5) Lilliewon. M. C. G.: Hidman.J.( 1969): Analysisofa Proposed Test 10 Assess Fatigue in Horses. Eq. vel. J. I: 231·7. (6) Sicwan. G. A. (1972): Drugs Performance and Responses 10 Exeldse in !he Racehorse. I. Physiological observations on Ihe cardiac and respiralory responses. AilS. vel. J. 48: S37·543. (7) Winlon. F. R. and Bayliss. l. E. (l9SS): Hllman '''ysio/0t.Y 4!h Ed. p.9. J . .t: H. Churchill lid .. LOndon. (8) Wilheringlon. D. H. (1971): Observalions on the Hean Rale of Thoroughbreds. Eq. vel. J. J: 99·101.
••••••••••••••••••••
