Thank you for participating in our Cheshire and Region 15 rides. You are a fabulous group, and we in Ride Management want to keep you happy and coming back! It is always great seeing familiar and new faces - horse and human! We hope you enjoy our trails and food, and that our staff is able to assist you when needed.
ENTRY NOTE! Thank you to all of our participants who submit their entries in a timely manner! While we appreciate all entries, late entries make it very difficult for our Ride Secretary! There is a considerable amount of paperwork involved with entries, not the least of which is coming up with the parameters for each division - Lightweight, Middleweight, and Heavyweight, as well as breed awards which require some cross-checking and verification. This is why we instituted our late fees. TRAIL: We are constantly trying new ways to reduce the possibility of riders getting lost. Please pay attention at the riders meeting and on the trail to help keep you on the right path. The trail marking seemed to be more helpful this year, so we will continue the method used. GPS: In case any of you are wondering, below is the information about why GPS units are not allowed to be used for measuring trail distance. They are inconsistent and do not give true readings of distance. Below is an excerpt from earthmeasurement.com/GPS_accuracy.html
Ideal Conditions
Ideal conditions for GPS Surveying or Navigation are a clear view of the sky with no obstructions from about 5 degrees elevation and up.
Any obstructions in the area of the GPS antenna can cause a very significant reduction in accuracy. Examples of interfering obstructions include: buildings, trees, fences, cables etc. Obstructions may have the following effects thereby reducing accuracy:
Reduced number of satellites seen by the receiver Reduced strength of satellite geometry (Dilution of Precision (DOP) values) Satellite signal multipath Corruption of GPS measurements Multipath is caused by GPS signals being reflected from surfaces near the GPS antenna that can either interfere with or be mistaken for the signal that follows the straight line path from the satellite. In order to get an accurate measurement from a GPS satellite, it is necessary that the signal from the GPS satellite travels directly from the satellite to the GPS antenna. If the signal has been reflected off of another surface prior to being received at the antenna, its length will be greater than was anticipated and will result in positioning error. Multipath is difficult to detect and sometimes hard to avoid.
Other Sources of Error in GPS
Signal Delay caused by the Ionosphere Signal Delay caused by the Troposphere Orbit Errors (GPS satellite position inaccuracy) Receiver Noise Common GPS Surveying and Navigation Techniques and Associated Errors
Autonomous or Stand Alone
The method involves using a GPS on its own with no additional correction information other that what is broadcast by the GPS system. Prior to May 2, 2000 accuracies obtained using this method weren't usually much better than 100m due to a US Department of Defense induced error called Selective Availability (SA). On May 2 SA was turned off and now accuracies are usually better than 10m.
Autonomous receivers will attempt to correct the Ionospheric and Tropospheric errors bases on mathematical models which are very limited in their accuracy. They have no way of correcting for orbit errors, multipath or receiver noise.
All of our marking is done with a measuring wheel on foot or with the odometer of a vehicle.
VOLUNTEERS: We could not put on these rides without the wonderful support of our volunteers! From road crossers to scribes to our P&R teams, food purchasers and prep-ers, trail markers, scorers, timers, on trail water servers and direction givers and anyone else we have forgotten to mention, it takes a village to run these rides! THANK YOU!
Once again, thank you for participating! We hope to see you again next year!