Ridecamp: RE: [RC] ntNewsGroup: Jerez WEG Endurance Postride Report

Girl, you go poking sticks into holes and you very often
find not only hornets but sometimes a rattlesnake. Those
things sting when they bite.

You posed a number of very sensible questions. Might I
suggest you re-read and post them all, plus, as a
questionnaire? It is getting dark earlier now and tabulating
the answers would give you something to do in the evenings.
You cannot go out partying every night in Oreana.

Bob

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Steph
Teeter
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 5:42 PM
To: Rides 2 Far
Cc: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [RC] ntNewsGroup: Jerez WEG Endurance Postride
Report


Wow, I think I've stirred the hornet's nest!

So - do we need to place blame? Whose fault is it really?
Maybe it's FEI's
problem, maybe it's Michael Stone's problem (you can bet
he's feeling the
heat), maybe it's a couple individuals with a lot of power,
maybe it's the
UAE and their buckets of money. Maybe it's our ridiculous
human egos that
have to prove better than the other guy. Maybe not enough
people have the
proper respect for the incredible difficulty of our sport.
Exhausted and
over-ridden horses are not unique to International level
competition.
They're just more visible, and probably more common on a
percentage basis
since it really really is a race. I refuse to believe that
we don't have
serious problems here at home though - I've seen too many
horses on IV
drips, and some with serious metabolic consequences later.
And whether a
horse dies by accident, colic, or exhaustion, we still have
to acknowlege
that our sport has inherent risks - to rider as well as
horse.

Would eliminating International competition, or boycotting
it make our sport
safer? Here at home, or anywhere? Can we really ever insure
that officials
won't be swayed, or have poor judgement, or that the courses
will be safe?
The International level is creating an environment where the
ability of the
horse to race over 100 miles is being pushed to it's limit.
That's pretty
obvious. But do we stay involved and try to help the sport,
and the horses,
at this level? Do we try to change the sport at this level??
Or do we say
'this sucks, I'm outa here'? I suspect many individuals who
at some time
have aspired to World level competition will be choosing the
latter.

What has now happened is that these (WEC) horse deaths are
now public, the
entire equine sport media has the story. Any time a group of
riders asks a
horse to race for 100 miles there is a high probability that
one or more of
these horses will become exhausted. Some of them may die,
either at the
event, or later due to complications. Like it or not, that
is the nature of
our sport as it's currently defined, it's a race.

Just as an aside - I received a phone call from Mathew
McKay-Smith (sp??)
after I got back from Spain. He has been trying to promote a
different type
of endurance competition - based on levels of achievement
rather than head
to head competition. There are probably some on the list
that are more
familiar with it then myself, but he has some interesting
ideas. I don't
know what the solution is - I love a good race, but I hate a
bad race! How
can we protect our sport, and better protect our horses??

Steph

(maybe LD is the answer :)



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 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

 If you are an AERC member - PLEASE VOTE in the upcoming By-Laws 
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