Ridecamp: [RC] Pre-Ride VC Issues and a few others

Roger,
Here is an answer to some of your concerns and thoughts.

<Let me toss this one out - Does anyone other then ME think all this
<excessive picky nondescript vetting have anything to do with the 
<influence of FEI and a transference of mind sets from the FEI vets?


Roger,
On the above question, I don't think this is the case.  I don't see 
vetting any more difficult now than 20 years ago.  What has changed 
is the relationship between the vets and the riders. Today there 
seems to be a team approach to any potential problem. The vets are 
asking to us to work with them in the evaluation of the horse when 
presented.
At the OD, both of our horses were a bit off.  Fancy tore her front 
right shoe off as we were loading up to leave from home. To show you 
how aggeeable the vets were, they looked at her and then asked us to 
present her when the farrier showed up and she could trot out.  On 
her trot out she was a tad sore, but not enough to hold her from 
starting the ride.
It was duly noted on her vet card and she was allowed to do the 
ride.  As she worked through the day, she just got better.  Each time 
at the vet check I made sure the vet understood how she looked when 
she began, and then we compared it to how she was doing.  She went 
from a B on her gait when she started and finished with an A.
Here is an example of the team approach working at its best.

Diane's horse began with a B and finished with a B+.  Again we worked 
with the vets throughout the ride.


> Since I was NOT at the OD  - let me ask this one - DID ALL the 
horses
> get the CRI done at ALL VC-  AND - at the FINISH - was it used as a
> finishing criteria? COULD you have been pulled for a 'failed' CRI at
> the finish??   Need to define that one?

At the OD the vets did notice more gait abberations than usual this 
year at the vet in.  This is according to Art King the head vet.  In 
addition he said many of them worked out of what ever was bothering 
them at the time.  Folks ship in for many miles.  The horses get to 
stand around for maybe less than a full day and are presented.  Lots 
of possibilities here for cramping, legs weary from the trailering 
and so forth.
ON the CRI, it worked for us all day. 

Two weeks ago I ran my new stallion Mose and his CRI was high or out 
of whack at the first vet check.  He was all excited. The vet looked 
at him and said, "Oh, he is just fine, he just needs another 15 miles 
to settle down."  And she was right.
At the next vet check he dropped like a rock.

Most of our vets do this vetting month after month.  They look at 
hundreds of horses.  They have the opportunity to see many, many more 
cases of gait aberation than we do, and with their team
attitude they are trying to develop with the riders, I'll still go 
with their judgement without the addition of any new rules.

We have not ridden a lot this year, but at the rides we have attended 
I would score the vetting right up there with the very best and I'll 
include the OD in that group of rides this year.
Jerry Fruth
AERC #441


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