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[RC] Protecting Our Horses, Protecting Our Sport - rides2far-The horses deaths this year may exceed the number last year -- and last year was regarded as an anomolous high year I have a problem with our grouping all horse deaths together. To me, a horse falling off a cliff does not really contribute to the type of research we're concentrating on unless we want to get more active in making trails safe. Also, a horse rupturing an aorta or something like that (didn't that happen to Teddy Bear in the ROC?) that was simply a lifelong time bomb waiting to happen don't contribute. It's like when the guy who started the running craze in the 70's died while jogging. You had people jokingly saying jogging killed him when in truth, it had kept him alive longer than he should have lived with his heart condition, even if that was shorter than the average life span. When you're dealing with numbers as low as 7 or 8 adding or taking away one number can make a big % difference. -Over 15% of the horses at the recent Pan Ams had to be treated with IVs and one horse died (this is consistent with performances at other similar competitions in past year and in my opinion is unacceptable). As I recall the management in Vermont was critisized for having very short loops and many vet checks. The FEI even condemned it, but I thought the completion rate went up and treatments down. Am I mistaken? How long were the loops at the 2003 PAC? Any noticable difference in results? -According to a recent post on ride camp, 6 out of the top 10 life-time mileage riders in our sport have lost horses to ride-related deaths. Again, I think it's irresponsible to group them all together. If you ride horseback 25,000 miles, you've spent a lot of time on horseback. Your odds go up dramatically. I was on a trail ride with a horse who stuck his foot through the reins, flipped over backwards and slammed its head on the ground dying instantly. Stuff like that happens around horses and if you spend enough time on them it'll probably happen to you. I recall the in depth description from Julie Suhr about her horse's death. In my opinion that death should have no stigma whatsoever for her. On the other hand, there were other cases where everyone had the urge to say "told you so" when it happened. There's a *big* difference in the two scenarios. A few things I'd like to see done when crunching numbers. I'd like to see, rather than "7 deaths in 2002 compared to 5 in 1998 (or whatever it was" I'd like to see "deaths per hundred miles of competition" or something like that. We need to factor in the number of horses competing and the number of miles completed. 7 deaths out of 700 miles ridden is a bit different than 7 deaths out of 700,000 miles ridden. I think endurance riding has made huge strides just since I started in 1987. Horses used to be skinny, lathered, pretty darned rough looking. I look around huge rides now and see beautifully conditioned horses in well fitting tack ridden by sober people who have made honest attempts to do things right. I don't know who it is that thinks "racing" is new, but they should have been around when the pulse criteria was 72 and if your horse made 72 within the 30 minute straight hold you left 30 min. from your arrival time, with the horse who had recoverd in 2 min. , even if he'd only recovered in the last 3 minutes. There were no ride cards. The vets at the next check didn't have any idea how he'd looked at the last check. Many vets had never been to an endurance ride or had any info from AERC on what to expect or look for. There was no such thing as a CRI. Can you imagine going back to this? I have tried going on group trail rides lately to get in some slow miles and I can't do it. The conditions the horses are dealing with are HORRIBLE! There are so many people who have no clue what they're doing. So many horses being abused whether intentionally or out of ignorance. I have to ride at endurance rides because it's the only place I can enjoy riding any more. I wonder how many horses' lives have been SAVED by endurance...for instance "Red" who was headed out for dogfood and if he hadn't made an endurance horse would have been in a can? My horse certainly wouldn't have earned any ribbons for standing quietly in a ring and giving them a slow collected trot. I think endurance has saved many an endurance minded horse from a life of abuse at the hands of those who wanted something a bit more lethargic. I think endurance is a godsend and our problems, though sometimes serious are confined to a minority of the riders. All this doesn't mean I'm not *for* trying to make things safer. But I don't believe in beating ourselves up when we're really trying to do better. Some of the finest horsemen I know competed in the Pan Ams and like Steph brought their healthy horses back home with them to beat us with next year. They learn things about the effect of competition and hauling and they pass the knowledge down to us to use. I appreciate that. Congratulations to all of you who did a good job. Angie ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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 Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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