I guess I don't give one hoot what people do with thier horses at home.
I don't give one hoot how badly they are treated in the show world. I
don't give a hoot about the mortality rate of eventing horses, cutting
horses, polo horses or pony club horses.
And the mortality rate of the above horses is irrelevant. We need to
worry about other people less when the fact is that IMO we have an
unacceptable level of serious treatments and mortality in endurance.
Dr. Frazier told the riders a the Pan Am's that in events such as this
one out of 100 horses will die because of the event. Is that acceptable
- not to me! That is 1% of the horses. Sadly he was correct that day.
We have enough cleaning to do in our own house to worry about someone
elses.
Truman
eznet wrote:
In my husband's practice the vast majority of colic cases occur at home and
a significant portion aren't discovered until it is too late (something's
ruptured). In a ride camp the first signs are at least seen and treated. L
Llop WNY
-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Susan Garlinghouse
Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2003 3:56 PM
To: jlong@xxxxxxxx
Cc: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [RC] what's the point...
Blaming that problem on endurance riding just because that trip
happened to be to an endurance ride is ludicrous!!! I can't believe
people are actually trying to justify this.
Once more, with feeling, please. I'm not saying the problem occurred
because it was an endurance ride, and wouldn't have occurred regrdless had
the destination been anywhere else. I don't care about one-rat studies, I
care about the majority. Sorry, you cannot convince me that the majority of
metabolic crashes at rides don't occur BECAUSE those horses were at a ride
(or a show, or racetrack, or wherever). What I'm saying, repeatedly, is
that physiologically, the event starts for the horse as soon as he steps in
the trailer, regardless of where he is going, or how far. And, IMO, I think
it is a dangerous precedent to allow the majority of riders to think "this
would have happened anyway" when a horse dies or needs metabolic treatment
at a ride. IMO, it should be the other way around---assume this animal
needed treatment because of something that occurred at that ride, be it
overriding, dehydration, toxin ingestion along the trail, whatever, but also
look for the cause to see if it maybe was a neoplasia, an abcess or the hand
of God.
I realize this approach smacks of Napoleonic law, but I also think the horse
deserves the benefit of the doubt in reviewing what went wrong after the
fact. There are already too many riders with dead horses assuming that
peeing coffee and falling over dead is just "bad luck" rather than what it
really is. Speaking only for myself, that's unacceptable.
JMO.
Susan Garlinghouse DVM
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