Jane Edwards and John Robertson
explain Vet Gates

(extracts from a group/regional meeting)

The message was: know your horse by practising at home taking the pulse as you come in after training. Know how fast the pulse drops so that you can maybe take a chance that the horse at a 70 or 67 pulse will have dropped to 64 by the time you get to the vetting. One member of your crew should wait just past the Timekeeper to pour water on as you are led to your crew point. If your horse is fit and well-prepared it should be possible to walk through and declare in a couple of minutes. Do not keep cooling down to the 50's, you are wasting time.

If you find the pulse stuck - it is worth walking round in a circle which will probably do the trick unless there is a real problem.

Cooling, feeding, electrolytes were all discussed.

The question was asked:

When does the minimum speed take effect - when I come into the Vet Gate or when I declare? Because if I am on minimum speed at the entrance I will be slower when I declare for vetting.

We said at the Entrance as it is the Timekeeper who can make the calculation, then we thought maybe not as the riding time has not stopped until declaration. We were convincing ourselves that the latter must be correct when John Robertson appeared and said that it was at the Entrance to the Vet Gate

The Vet Gate CLOSES when the last rider exceeded the time limit for the section and would thus be UNABLE to declare and would be eliminated as no vets would be available to vet.(unless required on medical grounds).The Timekeeper would remain until the last rider on course had come in - even though eliminated.

With the mass start, everyone starts at the same nominal time and the vet.gates' closing times will be calculated and posted in advance. (Should be!)

This means that a rider CANNOT declare if they have exceeded the time on arrival at the Vet.Gate..

Easy when you think hard enough!

You must of course DECLARE within 20 minutes of arrival but if you have a problem you will clearly wait outside until you think you can meet the pulse rate within your maximum 20 minutes. You can present once more within that 20 minutes if you fail PULSE, not lameness, the first time. Some organisers stipulate 10 minutes between presentations - check at the briefing.

Hold times are announced at the pre-ride briefing by the vets/organisers.

The pulse rate levels internationally are being reduced to maybe 56 and this may soon become a national rule.

Also riders were reminded they could dismount and walk in to the Vet.Gates but must be mounted for the Start and Finish.

Original document copyright: Nita Osborne (but updated to conform to current rules 2011)