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Expert007 -> RE: Smith Berry, Adv/Ext Section 1 quesiton (5/4/2008 4:22:33 PM)
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Looks like Dan and Leo hit the nail on the head. I don't see any confusion in the section other as described than the checker changing his mind about his interpretation of the rules. The only difference between the A and B lines here is the B's can go around the tree and the A's have to go down (or up?) and back on the same side of the tree, either side. This is a common mistake by trialsmasters, but easily remedied (but apparently meant to be that way for this event). All a Trialsmaster needs to do is make the space between the tree and the ribbon so narrow that you can't get by the tree twice without crossing your tracks. Or, like Leo pointed out, put B arrows on the tree and the adjacent ribbon, thereby closing off that part of the section to anyone without a B.
Part of this sport is looking for those hidden lines or shortcuts. It's not cheating, it's using all your experience to its fullest potential. In this scenario, I would say that Dan took the hardest line unnecessarily, but maybe that's what he wanted.
I don't think it should be up to the checker to decide what part of the section is OK to ride or not, based on his, often inexperienced, interpretation of the rules. A rider should be able to go into the section and ride it according to the rules without concern of penalty. If that rider misinterpreted the rules, then he would get the appropriate penalties.
I took a five one time riding over a log on top of a hill without stopping on it, and then crashing, because I could see how difficult it would be to stop. Then two riders stopped and stalled on the log, while resting on the skid plate, and were not given a five. I was very upset, because I could have done that if I knew the checker wasn't going to follow the rules as written in our rulebook. This is why I feel the checkers should follow the rules and you should not need to ask them. In this case, the checker was an expert rider who knew the rules!
Ride on!
Jareth
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