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[RC] What is the point? - John & Sue GreenallSorry folks, I have to strongly disagree with these statements;Bob... "No one, and I mean NO ONE, has determined the cause of the fatalities to be attributable directly to the sport." I watched a horse die of heat exhaustion (the autopsy is not complete, but nothing else showed up) last weekend. I watched the whole thing. The sport killed the horse. Spain...same thing. Pan Ams, the same thing. None of these horses were ridden by newbies...none of these horses were first year horses (who would have benefited from a year of LD) And Kat... "All the mandatory rests in the world aren't going to make a hill of beans of difference to the welfare of individual horses if riders do not know and understand that they need to rest their horse where it needs to rest, whether there is a vet check there or not :(." All of the riders knew they could stop or slow down, but didn't until it was too late. I have ridden multi-day rides with one hold and I agree that it can work, but...there is a different mentality of rider at these rides. IMHO, multi-day rides are the essence of endurance. But make them into Championship rides and things would change... Deaths of horses could radically change our sport if PETA gets a hold of us. Look at what happened in eventing! People who are outside of my sport ask me about it...when horses die at the Worlds and Pan Ams, the rest of the world wonders just what we are doing out there? As much as I would like to place the responsibility of the horse totally on the rider...it simply is not realistic. The sport has to protect itself, and the horse, by using whatever safeguards it has available. If you look at AERC history, you can see the evolution of this concept by way of lower pulses , stricter completion criteria, better educated vets and treatment availability. I am now advocating putting in gate and gos or more holds to protect the horse. Granted, this may change how we play and may be an "inconvenience" at some rides, but I am willing to accept it if it saves me from witnessing another horse death. I would hope that most of my fellow riders would agree. John and Sue Greenall mailto:greenall@xxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.vermontel.com/~greenall =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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