Re: [AERC-Members] [RC] It's not the distance... - Truman Prevatt
The comparison of horses standing in the field is not quite apples to
apples. The comparison should be to conditioned endurance horses not at
rides or right after rides - not 9000 horses standing the the field. In
humans it is known the mortality rate varies drastically based on age,
level of exercise, diet, etc. I suspect the same is true for equines.
Your correct in the stats. I figured that if you had 9,000
horses just standing out in pasture for a year, you would have two
deaths or more anyway. Those figures don't scare me much anyway. Nor,
is it all that bad what we have here in the US. But the overall look
of a lot horses after and during a ride is what is a concern here.
They can meet a level of inspection but the riders aren't doing their
part in being kind to their animals if they ignore signs of stress
during a ride. This is a riders responsibility and no one else. No
level of rules or stops can change this for the horse.
Right now in our area one of our top vets is making the pulse rate
level down to 56 in the LD rides. It's helping a lot. Most over
ridden horses can't make that rate for a while and it provides extra
rest for these horses. I like a 60 bpm better than a 64 bpm level. I
find my horse could be over tried at 64 and can still reach that level
of pulse rate easy. At the PanAm it was 64, I think it should be 60
for the horses sake. Something easy like that works wonders.
Tammy Robinson #12311
