Post by dalesnfellfan on Jul 11, 2016 11:22:40 GMT -1
I had an interesting but long, tiring day yesterday vet writing at the Kings Forest FEI ride, it is one of the bigger UK rides and very busy, I've been vet writing at this ride for a number of years and really enjoy it, however this year was slightly different in that the ride has gone electronic.
The scores were written on sheets as usual at the first vet gate, then fed into the computer, the riders then picked up an electronic tag to wear around the horses neck which records speed, GPS position etc. and alerts the computer operator that something is wrong if the horse stops for any length of time or ventures too far off course. At the second vet gate all the information is then recorded on tablets and feeds directly back to the computer, once I worked out how to use the tablet properly this was fine but I did have a few problems to start with, I have never used a tablet and don't even have an I phone so it took a few riders to come through before it was going smoothly.
To start with the horses coming through were the longer distance riders, mostly anorexic looking Arabs including some tiny lightly built ones of around 13.2hh -14hh with quite large heavy UAE riders, one vet did question the welfare status of this. Later it got more interesting as the shorter distances started coming through with a lot more variety including cobs and natives, mostly Welsh cobs, only saw one Dales, Bertie and Mike. It was lovely to see Bertie looking so well and to have a chat to Mike, they really are well suited to each other, they make a lovely team, Bertie found it rather exciting but behaved much better than a lot of the other horses coming through, with a few so badly behaved the vets refused to vet them.
The scores were written on sheets as usual at the first vet gate, then fed into the computer, the riders then picked up an electronic tag to wear around the horses neck which records speed, GPS position etc. and alerts the computer operator that something is wrong if the horse stops for any length of time or ventures too far off course. At the second vet gate all the information is then recorded on tablets and feeds directly back to the computer, once I worked out how to use the tablet properly this was fine but I did have a few problems to start with, I have never used a tablet and don't even have an I phone so it took a few riders to come through before it was going smoothly.
To start with the horses coming through were the longer distance riders, mostly anorexic looking Arabs including some tiny lightly built ones of around 13.2hh -14hh with quite large heavy UAE riders, one vet did question the welfare status of this. Later it got more interesting as the shorter distances started coming through with a lot more variety including cobs and natives, mostly Welsh cobs, only saw one Dales, Bertie and Mike. It was lovely to see Bertie looking so well and to have a chat to Mike, they really are well suited to each other, they make a lovely team, Bertie found it rather exciting but behaved much better than a lot of the other horses coming through, with a few so badly behaved the vets refused to vet them.
