Endurance
is an 'extreme sport'. We seem to be an 'extreme' group of people,
and nowhere is this more evident than on-line: one 5yo child riding a 100
generates thousands of words and demand for rule changes, one accident
due to the lack of a breastcollar ditto.... That said,
one equine fatality due to our sport is one fatality too
many! I emphasize 'due to our sport' because some fatalities may be
largely unrelated--I refer to cases of preexisting tumors, or parasite
damage, or aneurisms; these deaths could have happened in the pasture or
in a less demanding sport. I believe, however, that the majority of
treatments and deaths do not fall into that category; the majority are
caused by us. Bob's point about pre-ride contributory
factors is certainly a valid one, but I fear analysis of all
factors is impossible; each horse is a unique individual with a unique
history. All we can reasonably do, at this time and with our
available resources, is concentrate on our performance at rides, and try
to determine the things that cause us to fail to adequately protect our
partners. I think we
fail for one of three reasons--1)ignorance, 2)error (or DIMR) or
3)callousness. "Ignorance" is a harsh word, but I mean it
in its most literal sense--we simply don't know enough. The best
vets in the world cannot always predict or prevent a treatment; I feel we
are lacking a 'tool' or a specific piece of knowledge which would
help. The only 'cure' for this that I can see is continued
research. Similarly, some riders are simply not educated enough
about the technical aspects of the sport. We need to find ways to
educate them, hopefully before they make catastrophic errors! Where
one of these riders loses a horse, they should be dealt with with
compassion and sensitivity--but they must be dealt with.
Full disclosure for the benefit of all. "Error"
is where someone who ought to know better--does know better--simply
screws up. It's human error. There is no 'cure'. All we
can hope for is to make the rides as 'fool proof' as possible (adequate
number and lengths of holds, adequate water, thorough vetting
procedures)--given that we are all, occasionally, fools. This is
where analysis of which ride logistics result in statistically fewer
treatments may be invaluable. If we can develop a code of
"best practices" which appear to be "safer", we may
be able to eliminate most of the consequences of human error.
Again, where a rider loses a horse this way they should be dealt with
compassionately--I doubt there is anything we could do or say that would
punish them as much as they will be punishing themselves. But
again, full disclosure of the circumstances is necessary for the benefit
of the rest of us. "Callousness"
is the very rare occasion (I truly believe) where the rider simply does
not care what happens to the horse. They are focused on ego
gratification, financial gain, or both. The only way to deal with
riders of this kind is through 'sanctions' of some kind. In this
case, I reserve my compassion for the victim--the horse. The bottom
line? (aren't you glad I finally have one?) We need to
protect our horses from ignorance via rider education and
research. We need to protect them from human error by making the
management of competition as 'safe' as possible. We need to protect them
from callousness by sanctioning the guilty. Personally,
I am willing to help with education and research, and do. My only
suggestion regarding management at this time is that I think we should
only allow 30 minutes to recover at the finish. (I have no real
reason to think this would make a difference; I've just always felt that
the 60 mins is inconsistent with 'fit to continue', since a horse that
took more than 30 minutes on course would NOT be. I think this is a
'hold over' from the old days before 'fit to continue'; I believe FEI
only allows 30 minutes at the end and is perhaps ahead of us in this
respect). As for the
last; the P&G committee is capable of dealing with outright, provable
cases of abuse. But there may be many more that fall just short of
"cruelty", and yet are a train-wreck waiting to happen. I
believe that most if not all of these could be prevented by adopting
Angie's brilliant idea of a few days ago--that a rider whose horse
requires serious treatment (IV therapy, etc) lose all points for
that season and accrues mileage only. ("requires" and
"serious" to be determined by the ride vet).
