Howard, this could be any one of us telling
this story. Thanks for sharing this with us. The more I know about this sport,
the more I get scared to death I'm gonna get my beloved horses killed and the
more I find I don't know.
I'm just gonna learn as much as I can and do
what's right at the time and pray to God that's enough to keep us all safe and
sound to ride another day.
Say prayer everytime you ride out there.
Even the best we can do sometimes is not enough to save our precious ones from
harm.
In His Hands,
Susan, Fly Bye & Dandy
"All you
have to decide is what to do with the time that is given
you." -Gandalf the Grey from Lord of the Rings
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Howard
Bramhall Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 10:49 AM To:
AERCMembersForum; ridecamp Subject: [RC] Howard & War
Cry
Well, after 3 weeks on the road, out of Florida, doing nothing but riding
at Big South Fork and near Asheville, NC, I wish I could say it's been a real
pleasure to get back home and rejoin the lively discussions here on Ridecamp
and on AERC Member's Forum. But, alas, after reading about the Pan Am
ride, the discussions on eliminating competition in endurance, Stagg's article
in EN that states we really don't know what causes some of these metabolic
problems during a ride (slow riders seem to get this problem as often as top
tenners), and one personal attack after another flying in the direction of
Texas, I think I might have come home too soon. Our world, it seems, is
about to change.
The truth is, if we take away the awards, take away the competition, we
might as well call ourselves the American Competitive (na, that word has to
go) Trail Conference. Make that the American Non-Competitive Trail
Conference. Actually, we might as well disband altogether, because, I do
think the whole thing will fall apart if we get that carried away with
ourselves. Members will stop renewing their membership and the numbers
will dwindle to nothing. Humans need to compete. Horses may not
need to, but, they sure seem to enjoy doing so and it's one of the many things
that bond us together with our horses. Take that away and our sport will
die.
I had a bad experience at Big South Fork a couple of weeks ago during an
endurance ride. I was riding my daughter's horse, Wind Star War
Cry. Check out Endurance News and this horse, with my daughter riding,
is 2nd or 3rd in points in the Southeast, riding as an adult even though she's
only 14. You'd think this horse would do OK with me on him, GOING VERY
SLOW, on the trails that were challenging, but nowhere near the difficulty one
would find at Leatherwood. In fact, some of the trails were quite level
and fast, even though we didn't travel that speed.
The horse seemed perfectly fine, we trotted, walked, trotted. Some
of the LDers caught up to us and passed us by. War Cry and I were in no
hurry to get to that first vet check 20 miles away from where we
started. I even got off him a few times to let him eat some nice looking
grass growing along the trail. What a fine, fine, day, a magnificent day
to be alive! To ride without a competitive beat in our hearts, to chat
with folks, to enjoy life as much as is humanly possible.
We were about 4 miles from the away vet check, I was off of him, letting
him eat, talking with a few riders who went by, most of them asking if
everything's OK. "Everything's fine," I would reply, "absolutely,
positively fine." And, it was. Or, so I thought.
I was talking to one lady, about how great the trails were and what a
lovely time me and my horse were having, when War Cry just went down. He
went down so silently, so nonchalantly, I didn't even notice it until the
woman I was speaking to pointed it out to me. I freaked out
totally.
My terrific day had just come to an end. No warning, no idea what
the problem was here, but, I knew there was definitely a problem. So, I
got him up and we proceeded to walk back to the vet check area. Must
have been 3 miles, took me forever traveling on foot, I even considered
dumping the saddle along the trail or carrying it myself. The horse
looked fine, not sweating, not warm to the touch, heart rate was low, you
would never know anything was wrong at all except for the fact he went
down. And, his appetite was there, he still stopped and ate grass, which
I let him do along the way.
Well, to make a long story short (yea, that will be the day you do that,
Howard), we finally get to the vet area, Duane Barnett is there as a crew
person but he listens to War Cry's gut sounds for me and tells me he doesn't
hear much of anything going on in there. The last time Duane said this
to me at an endurance ride was about 4 years ago with Dance Line, and,
the memories from that experience just about cause me to lose consciousness
right there on the spot.
Man, not again! I cannot go through this crap again. I'm not
emotionally equipped to be able to handle this sort of thing. It's my
biggest nightmare, right up there with the one where I'm in prison and the
warden is that woman from North Georgia.
I won't drag this out, we get to the vet check area, War Cry is eating
like there's no tomorrow, the vet gives him a shot of banamine at my request,
and, 10 minutes later, gut sounds are there, the horse is fine. But, I
am not. And, I may never really be again.
This sport is tough. And, to try and make it sound like running
fast is what is causing horses to get into trouble is just an easy answer for
some who must have answers to unanswerable questions. The truth is, that
is not the answer. This can happen to anyone's horse at a ride, at
anytime, under any circumstances. The whole experience is driving me
nuts, and, believe me, I was almost already there before this happened.
The only answer is, I got lucky, if you can call it that. War Cry
gave me a clue. He told me, directly, about as directly as a horse can
tell a human, that something was wrong. And, this colic episode was
about as mild as one can get, but, when the vet tells you no gut sounds, on
top of the horse going down, you will freak out and wonder why on earth you
attempt this sport at all. And, please, don't some of you try and tell
me this had nothing to do with the sport. Yea, I'm sure it was all just
a coincidence that this happened out while riding in an endurance ride after
doing 17 miles with a lot of other horses traveling by.
I'm not trying to scare anyone off from this sport. Not at
all. I've analyzed this thing quite a lot and have not come up with one
concrete thing that might have caused it. But, I will say, my love for
this sport is beginning to dwindle. I am concerned that so many of ya'll
are not aware that it can happen to you. And, your horse might not be as
talkative to you as mine was to me if it does. You might not catch it
until it is too late. Take it for what it's worth. For me, I'm
seriously considering taking a very long time off away from the sport I love,
but, does not seem to love me back in return. The horse must always come
first, above, even the sport of endurance!
