MATRYOSHKA, sorry I didn’t come gab more with you at the ride. It was lovely wasn’t it? I was really tickled with Mouse and had just a delightful ride on him!
I had an interesting conversation with an ECTRA vet judge about what a horse will get pulled for in endurance versus ECTRA CTRs. She works at both types of rides. There are things that you will see a horse pulled for in endurance (depending on the vet) that would not be a cause for pulling in CTRs. Why? Well, the way CTRs are judged is based on the horses physical condition before and after the ride. Start the ride with 100 points for the horse, loose points or fractions of points, at the end of the ride for negative changes, fatique, filled windpuffs, girth sores, etc. If they pulled horses for “changes” instead of pulling points then you’d could have far fewer riders at the end and the whole point is to learn from your placings and the deductions on the two forms that are given to you. You learn to fix what wasn’t working, how to care for them better, ride better, electrolyte better. Taking you to the end then pulling you doesn’t teach you any better.
A CTR horse may get pulled if lameness is bad enough, or pulse, metabolics, the serious indicators. But not for run of the mill sore back. How often have you seen tack pulled at a dressage show, event or hunter show and the back checked for soreness??? Had blood drawn recently at a local horse show to test for ALL types of drugs? I don’t think so.
Another cause of sore back problems is short back syndrome. Many of our horses have a relatively short back and most saddles are simply too long for their backs and/or not shaped to allow for the rise of the loins. for instance my horse Mouse is a bit butt high, AND he raises his loins way up when he trots. I spent $$$$ having saddles flocked for him and finally switched back to the treeless Bob Marshall Sport Saddle and it will follow the contours of his back. Many horses get rubbed or bumped by the cantles or back edge of saddles.
Another thing is lot’s of folks post in a back to front to back to front sort of motion. So they sit down hard onto the cantle. Learn to sit erect and post more up and down. this is much harder if the stirrup bars or rings are too far forward.
Bonnie S.