Really? Who is responsible here?

[guest@endurance.net]

carla lawson robcarla@bellsouth.net
Well here is one for you. I have recently become involved with the local
4-H Horse Program here. I am on the Advisory Board for
the Horse Club. The situation is this previous year they had several
incidents involving the Money saved by the club being borrowed from the
treasury by the treasurer. With that fixed and out of the way, the new
problem is as follows; read carefully. I believe this is somewhat
endurance related with the recent Dead Horse issue being ran into the
ground. But maybe you can help us get all of our cards together.
Several scenarios...Some kids would hitch rides from other parents to go
to shows, camps, and clinics with their horses.
one instance one childs horse lost a shoe and didn't have the $$ to
replace it. Some of the parents helped out but was never reimbursed. Kid
apparently blew all the money Mom sent.
Scenario 2 one kid was injured, complained of injuries sent to hospital
for some Xrays Mom upset because the authority was not given. Kid was okay
just sprained wrist or something.
Scenario 3 Kids horse goes down with abcess foot. Very bad incident where
the farrier told the kid DO NOT ride until the day of Competition, Kid
rode unsupervised the day before competing a result the mare went down
from the abcess coming to head. ***[Farrier told her to even reconsider
riding because mare was in bad shape. The Drill team was told if ONE kid
did not show up it would cause the entire team to be disqaulified.
Alternate horses or children where not allowed. (huh?)]*** After the mare
went down, the attending show farrier numbed or "froze" the foot. The Kid
and parents were told by The Equine Specailist over the State of Kentucky
that the mare would be okay to compete and the kid was able to ride the
required 15 minutes of drill team. When the mare came out she went down a
second time. that the mare was okay to ride for the drill exercise
previously before the competition. YES THE EQUINE SPECAILIST!!
The parents are learning about horses with their kids. They religiously
attend clinics, and honestly try hard to learn about the horse industry.
However I feel that they were somewhat misguided by pressure from the
drill team, and the Equine specialist. I will say that the parents had a
huge learning trip here with this show.  When I spoke to them after the
fact they did not know that Horses Show signs of stress differently, that
the horse may possibly get ulcers from this and that They are basically
paying closer attention to their daughters renegade riding. Sadly its
going to take months for the mare to recover from this and sadly the vet
and parents are allowing the daughter to ride *lightly* after three weeks.
My Question....who is responsible? how can we prevent further happenings
esp when it comes to travel? We are planning on possibly haveing parents
sign contracts concerning Chaperones and giving them some rights when it
comes to making decissions for the kids. I am for one slightly scared of
the responsibility. But I really wanna help these kids who are soo full of
try. Does this pertain to endurance...yeah alittle maybe it can help those
who mentor and sponsor kids. Any help, Advice would be great.To further
make my point If this child had been placed in my responsiblity with the
way our new system hopes to do That kid would have not been on that horse
NO WAY NO HOW NO GO. Yes it would have caused a horrible loss to the team,
But it would have prevented a kid from nearly loosing a good horse. By the
way that mare did not make one wrong step. She endured the entire 15
minutes and 30 seconds of the drill exercise. Walked back to her stall and
colapsed. Fortunately she survived...
Carla Lawson
Advisory Board
Logan County 4-H Horse Club
(yeah I got myself into another mess)
Ansata (okay...we have dogs... we have the neighbors cat...we have a silly
pet mouse...do you have to get the neighbors kids involved here too??)
Haley (oh ann but they are soooo tasty!)
Rob (what are we gonna do with 12 doz kids running around the place?
wait....can I make them caddy for me?)