Re: Re: Bill and Smokey

["Becky Huffman" <tos@htcomp.net>]

----- Original Message ----- From: <tallcarabs@juno.com>> >   Becky - what
is Catoosa?  What happened there?> > > Rae> Tall C Arabians - TX>

here is the first few paragraphs of the article I saved, (pasted below) it
goes on, but I think you get the picture.  (typos are mine)

Becky Huffman, Cleburne, Texas
Huffman's Arabians ~ The Original Series ~
http://www.htcomp.net/Huffman/

"There are always alternatives." - Spock

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Catoosa, Oklahoma. June 13, 1987.

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article from the Lone Star Horse Report, Fort Worth, Texas . November 1987
Vol. 5, Number 11

****
    On June 13 this year, what was supposed to have been an endurance race
turned into a deadly fiasco resulting in the deaths of at least seven
horses. Promoter Bill McAnally of Tulsa, Oklahoma, organized the race at
nearby Catoosa under the auspices of the American Endurance Ride Conference
(AERC), the national organization dedicated to  the furtherance of that
horse sport. The AERC endorsement was removed on the day before the race
when the promoter refused to follow AERC safety guidelines.

   <snipped> (short explanation of AERC vet control)

   One of the pre-race events of the Catoosa Days celebrations was a
"Calcutta" auction on the outcome of the race.  In a Calcutta, the highest
bidder on a winning horse takes the total amount of money wagered on the
race. McAnally wanted the shorter 15- and 25- mile races to be run without
veterinary control because he and the "jackpot" riders who were lured by the
advertised $20,000 purse did not want the pace slowed.

   In spite of the vehement protest by AERC officials and warnings by ride
veterinarians of potential dangers posed by high heat and humidity to the
horses, McAnally was adamant.  "It's my race," he is reported to have said,
"and I'm going to run it how I want. If you don't like it, you can get the
hell out."

   The endurance organization withdrew its sanction and made plans for a
ride conducted according to AERC rules some 20 miles away at the Will Rogers
Centennial Trail at Oologah Lake.  Held under the same conditions of heat
and humidity as the nearby Coatis ride on Corps of Engineers property, there
were no injuries or deaths as a result of the AERC ride.

   At Catoosa, however, the riders who had pushed their horses to the limit
in the 94 degree heat and humidity of 70% had to haul weak and gaunt horses
away or watch as a local veterinarian tried valiantly to save them. Seven
horses died during the ride or immediately following, and an unconfirmed
total of 13 deaths is reports to have occurred.

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