Re: RC: Our Sport

[Tivers@aol.com]

Howard,

Don't get shell-shocked. All you did was to ask your horse for more than he 
had been prepared to deliver. Happens all the time. Knowing the ultimate 
capabilities of a given horse on a given day is near-impossible. The solution 
is to prepare him for more than you'll ever ask him to do in a ride. Have a 
cushion of fitness. If you get whimpy, though, he'll get whimpy right along 
with you, and he'll become even less fit. Then you'll do a ride where he 
would have sailed, and he'll falter, and you'll have another sad experience.  

Yeah, I found the episode a little mushy. But then, 27 years with horse 
racing hardens you to this kind of thing. In horse racing, when a horse gets 
hurt, it's always the trainer's fault--and it's not the rae, or what the 
trainer did on raceday, but it's what he didn't do in the months leading up 
to that racing challenge. Racehorse trainers tend to blame these injuries on 
back luck, bad track, bad rider, etc. But, invariably, it's lack of proper 
preparation.  So, no matter how sobby their tale, I seldom have much sympathy 
for them. 

I'm sure it is a shock for endurance riders to see a horse die, but on the 
track, that's almost a daily occurence. And the deaths are much more 
spectacular. And sometimes the rider dies along with the horse. Over time, 
you come to detest the trainers and vets for being so damned stubbornly 
stupid. But, you do what you can, for the smart ones, and let the rest face 
the consequences of their repeated errors. 

Yes, you only want to make the mistake once. But you have to know what the 
mistake was. Yours was lack of preparation.

ti