Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Perhaps a good place to start would be with the obvious.

We are not going to be able to fix everything perfectly
right from the beginning.  However, when an obviously 
avoidable death occurs and there is no horse protection
committee in place and there is no reporting, then this
issue becomes a problem.

One of the biggest recent issues was the death of a new 
horse overridden by a new rider but "sponsored" by a 
seasoned rider.  The story went something like this:  the 
vets told her to slow down and walk in, this person did not.  
The horse was "raced" in and even heroic efforts by the 
vets could not save the horse.  

In this case there should be a way for the AERC to come
down on and ban the rider(s) involved, thus doing something
to show concern for protecting the horses.

Same story, another overridden horse, died of renal failure
about 4 days after the ride.  

I've heard that "neither rider has returned, so nothing would
have changed", but that's not the AERC showing concern for
banning obviously errant riders.  Both of these events had
eye witnesses and they are both too damn obvious to ignore.
Both riders should be banned for life, irregardless.

To me, that's the issue here.

Stacy, on the other hand, lost her horse even though they
both looked great all day.  We were all shocked.  To me there
is nothing that needs to be done in this case except remembering
and learning that this arrythmia turned out to be fatal one day.
(Could have been fatal any day?  Could have been fatal many years
prior had the horse not been in such great physical condition?)

The first two riders are too damn obvious to ignore, and to me
that's where this all started.  That's where the AERC needs to 
start.  Not in the 'might have' arena, but to finally stand up and
sanction / ban for life riders who blatently ignore the vets, and
/or consistantly and obviously overrode and killed their equine 
friends.

I've heard a lot of discussion about gray areas these last couple
days, but I have not heard anything about either of these two
cases.  I'm not concerned about corrals, or accidents, or events
that happened to riders who did everything right.

It's getting hot, I have to go ride my horse with my blue heeler now.

Kathy Myers
in Santa Fe, NM

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