I was asked to write a column on safely racing to the finish. First, I will admit that I am a competitive individual who has enjoyed the "thrill of victory" in a race to the finish of a 100. And I will note that I have raced to the finish and regretted the consequences. (More about that below.) The reward of racing to the finish in most competitions is simply the thrill of victory and the sense of achievement.

Whether you choose to race or not, I believe we can all agree that the rider who races at the finish must take primary responsibility for racing safely.

Basically there are three risks which I will illustrate by examples.

1. The risk of an accident to rider or horse significantly increases.

2. The likelihood of an injury to the horse significantly increases.

3. The risk of not meeting the pulse recovery parameter significantly increases.

Risk of rider or horse accident

The first example is illustrated by what happened at the USET Festival of Champions at a competition in the late Ő90s. Two top U.S. riders, each of whom had several international medals, came in together to the finish. As rivals are prone to do, they came in at a full gallop.

The finish line was actually an uphill in a field followed by a gradual downhill run-out supposedly well back from a dirt road. However the horses did not know where the finish line was and kept galloping as the riders strained to slow them. At the road the riders either had to make a sharp turn to the left where the course had gone earlier in the day or a more gradual turn to the right. One of the two riders -- or the horse -- chose the sharper turn and crashed into a fence.

The horse was fortunately not seriously injured but did not pass the soundness exam at the finish. The rider was injured and missed several months of riding.

Likelihood of injury increases

The second example is a mistake I made at the Land Between the Lakes ride in 1993. At 90 miles my horse Drubin had As at the checkpoint. I came to the finish line riding with a friend and fierce competitor, so we of course sprinted to the finish line, competing for fifth place. Drubin and I came in sixth. When I went to present for final vetting, Drubin was off in the hind. At the time Drubin had completed 12 hundred-milers in a row. Fortunately after considerably massaging and limbering I was able to re-present and keep his string of completions going.

While I had scouted the finish line the day before the ride I had not taken into account the impact of heavy rain the day of the ride turning the finish soggy. In retrospect, racing for a fifth place was a silly mistake that could have cost me my string of consecutive completions and a place on the team going to the World Championship the next year.

Failure to recover a possibility

Examples of horses racing to the finish and failing to recover are numerous. Even the best horses that normally recover in a couple of minutes can be disqualified or come close to disqualification when raced at the end of a tough competition. One year the three-time World Champion R.O. Grand Sultan+/ (Rio) took almost an hour to recover at the Race of Champions.

At one of this yearŐs high-profile rides, the winning horse took almost the maximum time allowed to recover as that horse had to make up several minutes in the tough uphill last leg, while the second place horse recovered very quickly. That was cutting it really close.

Considerations in LD rides

Before addressing the steps one should take to increase the safety factor in racing to the finish in endurance rides, let me address the question of racing off at the end of a limited distance ride. The time on a LD ride does not stop until the horse meets the pulse criteria of 60.

A horse that gallops into the finish will take many minutes longer to recover than a horse that is paced in at a trot or easy canter. So a horse that is paced will almost certainly more than make up the difference gained by a horse sprinting at the finish.

Racing the right way

If you have a seasoned, fit horse, and you may want the option of racing to the finish, what are the precautions you should take?

1. Survey the finish line carefully so you know when to start pulling your horse up, how much run-out room you have, and how safe the finish area is. Ride managers should try to allow plenty of room but sometimes they are limited. If you cannot survey the finish line in a point-to-point ride, have ride management carefully describe the finish line for you -- or forego racing. (As an aside, I always try to ride the finish line the day before a ride as a part of my mental rehearsal. I normally do that at an easy trot or canter to create the right visual image in my mind as that is how I anticipate finishing.)

2. Do not race if your horse has shown any sign of being off. Racing at the end of a long ride, when the horse is tired, significantly increases the risk of injury as fatigued muscles put more stress on tendons, ligaments, and other tissues.

3. Do not race if the terrain is really uneven or muddy or in other ways overly stressful for your horse.

4. If possible, agree with your competitor when to start the race-off. Two of the best competitors in the sport, Darla Westlake and Becky Hart, taught me this lesson. Rather than run their horses hard from the last checkpoint, they chose to start the sprint at an agreed-upon point a few hundred yards from the finish. The horses were then not overly stressed and could easily recover and be strong candidates for the best condition award. By contrast, a horse that takes many minutes to recover usually has no chance for the best condition award.

5. Train your horse to pull up when you give the signal. Race horses slow up at the finish when the jockeys stand up in the irons. Our horses do not recognize finish lines, so we must train them to our signals.

In closing, each of us must evaluate the risk/reward trade-off of racing at the finish. (Let me note that AERC allows ties.) As a competitor I will still race for first place if: I have done my homework, the stars are aligned, the finish is safe, and my horse is really feeling good.

For any other placing, my mistakes -- many of which I have not mentioned due to space limitations -- have convinced me that the risk of racing for just another placing does not outweigh the risk of injury and non-completion.