I guess I'd have no problem with an automatic protest being spawned by
an equine fatality. After all that is exactly what happens with a
positive drug test. The reasons for the positive are sorted out in the
investigation associated with the protest.
Seems quite reasonable to me that an equine death should spawn the same
sort of investigation through the protest procedure. The protest would
not necessarily result in sanctions if the fatality was cause by an
accident, i.e., falling off a mountain or some preexisting metabolic
problem that surfaced.
However, it seems that an automatic protest would be a good way to make
sure all data relevant to the death was saved and the death was
addressed in a logical (and non emotional ) manner.
"She had ridden all day long and then almost at the finish
line the horse drops dead. I wonder if someone might have blamed the
rider and filed a protest if it had happened more recently."
I have been following this thread for days and I am very surprised on
the number of posts that infer that if a horse is treated or dies at a
ride that someone may automatically file a protest. I think this is
really unfounded, at least in my region (PS). Most of us realize that
there is some risk to our horses in this sport and therefore there will
never be 0% on horse deaths/treatment. I think most AERC members think
the protest process should be used for the most grievous violations or
when all other means of resolving an issue fail or if the violation is
so blatant that public censure is demanded. This is pretty obvious
from the protest that started this whole discussion. Also, to file a
protest a person has to come up with $100 and write up a report and
possibly do lots of follow up paperwork. Not too many people I know
would take that on lightly.
I was at a ride a couple of months ago where a very experienced
rider was running with the top horses. At one of the checks her horse
crashed and had to be treated with fluids. There was not even a hint
of discussion that a protest should be filed. I have also been at
rides where a novice rider had to have their horse treated and again
there was no discussion of filing a protest. The riders' behavior did
not warrant censure. Reread the protests in the last two ENs. It is
the behavior of the rider(s) that caused the protest to be filed not
just that the horses had to be treated.
Most endurance riders understand that if you participate in this
sport long enough you there is a big probability that you could have a
horse treated for a metabolic problem. I think what many riders cannot
tolerate is the behavior of a small minority of riders that have no
regard for their horse.
