Re: RC: Fwd: RC: Getting vets..

["Truman Prevatt, PhD" <truman.prevatt@netsrq.com>]

In SERA we have been wrestling with the vet issue for a while. We have
sufficient vets and barring unforeseen circumstances, e.g. a vet getting
injured and not being able to come, we have sufficient vets and short if
any lines at our rides. But our rides are getting larger and it is time
to plan now, not later.

Candace Bourne hit a very good option, get them while they are in school. We have had good luck with vet faculty from Auburn, UF and UGA in the past. When they come, they bring students and some of the students go on to vet rides.

But we have to keep looking and nurturing new vets. As one of our "mainstay vets" in the SE put it, "what vet would not rather be away from home on the weekend spending the whole day out in a cold drizzling rain looking at horses, than to be all cozy in his arm chair in his living room watching college football!"

We have to find vets that love the sport and love the horses that can do the sport. We have to nurture them and help them nurture new vets to come along and take their place when they finally burn out and want to spend a few weekends with their families or maybe even ride their own horses.

I don't think the pay is the issue. Most vets can make more in the practice in a day than they will ever make at an endurance ride. It is a labor of love of the sport.

Truman

SandyDSA@aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 2/27/01 5:44:12 PM Pacific Standard Time, lynne@glazer.org
writes:
 
 

I disagree with the concept of paying vets more for larger rides,
unless you simply can't get enough vets, which I guess is your point.

Personally, I feel it's my responsibility as a ride manager to have
MORE vets if there are more riders.  Reducing their workload can have
the effect of encouraging the vets to do the ride in succeeding years.

 

Yeah - hello? You said it Lynne. Higher pay doesn't make a vet capable of
being in two places at once. Rides need more vets not higher pay.
s