And, it would cause the smart people to bolt and leave an organization that
acts like a police state, writing tickets, instead of trying to educate.
Man, we are really getting carried away here. I don't like what I'm
reading at all, lately, about any of this. Heck, why don't
we just burn them at the stake, like we did a few hundred years ago?
It's one way to eliminate those who don't act the way we would like. I
have a list of who the actual witches are, btw, in our organization, for those
who might want to take such firm and decisive action. They (the witches
amongst us) boil young children in oil and run their horses into the ground so
they can have them for dinner right after the ride (horse & kiddy pudding
pie, they call it).
This is getting silly, folks. We're gonna punish people cause their
non-Arabian horse, who might not have been trained according to our super,
elitist, endurance horse standards, doesn't come down in 30 minutes at a ride
where the temp is 85 degrees and the humidity is 90 per cent. If anyone
should be fined it's our own organization for allowing a ride to go on during a
time of year where these temps occur (that's a joke).
The only thing that's going to occur, with most of the ideas I'm
reading, is you're gonna piss a lot of folks off, lose them as members,
and, eventually, disappear as an organization. First, we take away the
competition. Then, we gossip publicly about folks we don't think are
really doing "the right thing" with their horses. Then, heck, we fine
them, again and again, and if they still don't get the message and are stupid
enough to continue showing up at rides, the only option left is to
just lynch them. Kept folks who had an incorrect attitude in line a few
hundred years ago, why not bring that one back? Great idea, must have come
from North Georgia.
When something goes wrong with a horse at an endurance ride our first
reaction should be compassion. Then, maybe, ask some questions, to
determing what might have went wrong. But, to go for blood, immediately,
without knowing the facts, is such a mistake. It's completely wrong.
There are not that many bad apples in our sport and I think some of
ya'll are just trying to put yourselves up so high and mighty that you've
really forgotten those words you should be saying when a horse gets into
trouble at an endurance ride. "There, but for the grace of God, go
I." If you don't think it can happen to you, you really shouldn't be the
ones to determine what happens to someone that it does happen to, because, quite
frankly, you've lost touch with reality.
I've been doing endurance for 5 years. I got a horse into trouble
during my first year and it tore me up so badly, I've done everything within my
feeble powers to make sure that it would never happen again. A few weeks
back one of my best endurance horses, ranked number 2 or 3 in the Southeast, got
into trouble, with no rationale explanation whatsoever for it. He just
went down.
Ya'll want to come after me for what happened at that ride, come on.
I'm thinking of taking a break from this sport anyway. Action like that
would send me over the edge and I would never ever return (the witches are
licking their chops thinking of that possibility).
This is not what I was hoping for when I was so thrilled to see the Welfare
of the Horse Committee established at the Convention. I thought, with
education, coordinated with investigations of any horse deaths at an endurance
ride would be a real benefit to all members of AERC. But, reading that
we're gonna start fining folks, start taking away any past accomplishments
because their horse didn't come down in 30 minutes or got pulled for other
metablic reasons, is ridiculous. We're losing track of where we want
to go here. Do we want to grow as an orgainzation or completely fall apart
because we decided to punish those who weren't catching on fast enough?
The truth is we really don't know what's happening here. Some of
these horses are getting into trouble for reasons that we can't quite figure
out and, this is what we need to look at. In most cases, we really
don't know and, to punish the rider because it was his/her misfortune to be
riding one of these horses who did not do well at a ride is so wrong. Hey,
wouldn't it be ironic if it was our beloved "electrolytes" causing some of
these problems? Who would we blame then, since, we push this product so
hard? We should form a committee to fine the makers of the product, yea,
that's the ticket. Or, give Heidi their cell phone number.
To accomplish the goal of learning from horses who do get into trouble at
endurance rides we really need the rider on board for us to have half a chance
of getting accurate information. Punish the rider, and we will lose that
information. Punish them severely and we not only lose that rider as a
member, we lose his family and any of his close friends or those who think the
punishment was unjust. Get to the point where self righteousness becomes
absurdity and there will only be one or two of you left in the
organization.
To go after a member should only be a last resort and only happen when it
is such a flagrent violation even someone as stupid as myself would see there
was no other choice. Otherwise, the rider is presumed innocent until
PROVEN beyond a reasonble doubt that they were not. To go any other
way will shut down AERC altogether. I really believe that.
Somethimes **** happens...through no fault of the
rider...this penalty would be excessive, and only cause the "dumb"
people to try and hide this....Cora
