The Edge

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

K S SWIGART   katswig@earthlink.net

Howard said:

> Take it as how I presented it to you; don't go flaming a guy 
> that may have meant it completely different from how I'm 
> presenting it to you in A STORY.  

I hope that nobody thought I was flaming anybody in my post about
"The Edge."  I THOUGHT that I was pretty careful to state that
it was the statement itself, out of context, without knowing
exactly what was said, whether it was reported accurately, and
what either Howard or Dr. Fazier might have meant that I was
commenting on.  I both opened and closed with a disclaimer 
stating just that.

Maybe I should just have waited another week and made no mention
of what provoked me into thinking about whether we as endurance
riders take our horses close to the edge.  But since it achieved
my purpose, which was to discuss how important it is to stay well
away from the edge (and a discussion about the great research
that is being done to help us discover just where that edge 
actually is so we CAN stay well away from it).

And Susan's (much better worded than mine with alot more data
to back it up) post about how the edge may be closer than we
think, that the veterinary exam that we get at a ride may not
be very good at indicating how close we are to the edge (as evidenced by horses with A's and B's on hydration still showing
serious signs of dehydration in their blood work), and that even appearing to stay away from it on the day may have long term consequences (in the form of kidney damage??) that may not show
up for years but still will shorten the horse's life/career was, for me, just another way of saying the same thing.

And I will stand by my original response to the out of context 
statement: "We as endurance riders, more than any other sport, 
take our horses closer to the edge..."

My response still is, "Not if we are smart we don't."

Note that I do not say that I am disagreeing with either Howard
or with Dr. Frazier.

And if the blood work and other research that is being done shows
that Top Ten horses are no closer to the edge than those
that run middle of the pack or at the back (as Truman asks),
then that would indicate that even those horses that are running 
in the top ten are not teetering on the edge, but rather that
they are talented, well-prepared, and well-ridden, well within
their capabilities.

And I suspect that this is the case.  Many of the people that 
I know who consistently finish in the Top Ten are not riding
their horses anywhere near their edges--certainly no nearer the
edge than any of the other horses in the ride.

But it is the riders and the preparation that keeps these horses
from their edges....not the ride vets--and at every ride I have
ever been to, the head vet has pointed this out, which is what
I suspect that Dr. Frazier was doing at the Far Out Forest ride.

Every ride I have been to, the vets have said, in essence, "Look
at me as a resource to help you keep from getting your horse too 
close to the edge, but don't count on me to do it for you."

And, I would say, more than any other horse sport.  Endurance 
riders are more careful about staying well away from the edge.
In endurance, there is nothing to be gained by getting up close 
to it.  

On the contrary, in Thoroughbred racing it is possible to
take your horse up to and/or over the edge, win the race but 
have the horse break down in the next one, and retire the horse 
to collect a $75,000 stud fee with a full book in its first 
season. 

So for me, more than any other sport, endurance is about going
nowhere near the edge of my horse's capabilities and the best
way to be the most successful in endurance is to stay well away
from the edge.  For me, the best way to win (and horse and riders
get recognized for and put in the Hall of Fame for), is to ride
the horse so well within its capabilities that the edge is never
even in sight.  This is one of the reasons that I choose to 
ride endurance:  I can win without ever having to risk taking
my horse too close to the edge.

I know, I too have been too close to the edge with my own horses
(never had one on an IV but that doesn't mean that my horses 
haven't paid the price for taking them too close).  But when I 
look at the great horses and riders in this sport, I see horses
and riders that never went anywhere near the edge.  And yes, I 
see these horses and riders consistently in the top ten both at
individual rides, in the year-end awards, and for life-time
achievement.

kat
Orange County, Calif.