There are some good guesses in there, Kat. The thing is, I kind of
disagree with your final conclusion. I do think there are some excellent
ideas out there that would help reduce the number of endurance related equine
metabolic deaths. I have a list:
1) The pacer/mentor program, for newbies, is an excellent idea.
This is how we pass on the valuable knowledge that our experienced riders have
to give to others.
2) The "horse holiday" idea is another good one. 30 days is not
a long period of time and if your horse is pulled at a ride, for metabolic
reasons, that period of time is something a rider should do on their own
anyway.
3) Less distance between vet checks. That one is a no
brainer. If a horse travels in our sport more than 20 miles before seeing
a vet, we are just asking for trouble.
4) We should develop a tier system (novice, intermediate, beginners)
for both riders and horses. A rider should not be allowed to go and do the
TEvis ride, for example, without some prior completions and proven ability
with a horse. And, speaking of Tevis, if a ride is not forthcoming with
the required information that the manager must pass on to AERC (which includes
horse deaths and metabolic treatment) that ride should lose AERC
sanctioning. We are pussy footing around with Tevis because, it seems to
me, we need them more than they need us.
5) Dr. Mackay-Smith has some valid ideas and reducing the time allowed for
a horse to meet the required pulse (and this number should be lower, also) would
require the rider to change their mindset if they plan on hot hoofing it at a
ride.
6) All AERC vets should have a valid license when practicing at an
endurance ride.
7) Horse log books should be a requirement. I recently
received an AERA horse log book and will go into detail of it's contents in
another post.
I disagree with Kat's final conclusion in her post. She's correct
that we cannot stop horses from dying at our rides totally, but, I really do
believe we can reduce their numbers. Using any of the ideas I've listed
above certainly won't increase their numbers and, unless we ever get the courage
and say this is worth a try, make an attempt on our part, for the horse, we'll
never really know if it would have changed a thing.
The basic thought behind some of those ideas is that the new rider will
soon realize this sport is not a walk in the park. We teach them
everything they need to know before they attempt their first 100 miler. We
put them, and their horse, through a program that enforces the belief that the
horse must be put ahead of any personal goals or achievements in the
sport. And, the fact, that they both have to earn the right to be called
an endurance rider and an endurance horse (like the horse cares what you call
him).
I realize we have some of those words stating how much we care about our
horses in writing, somewhere, but, the fact of the matter is we need to
reinforce those statements with actions. I don't want to see endurance
become Competitive Trail, but, I sure would like to see our metabolic death
totals come close to their numbers. Take a real good look at some of
the ideas floating around concerning this topic before you totally discount
them. I'm convinced we can do better.
Let me preface what I am about to say here with a number of
caveats. I do not know Howard; I have never met him; I wouldn't know
him if I tripped over him in the dark, or in the daylight for that matter;
the extent of my experience with his is through e-mail, those public
ones that he has sent to endurance mailing lists over the years and a
few private posts as well. There are obviously people who know him
better than I do, and, I suspect that virtually everybody who has spent
any time here knows him just as well as I do....which is to say, hardly
at all, especially since he has on at least one occasion (if not
more) confessed to, shall we way, embellishing his stories; so the wise
person will take everything he says with a grain of salt :).
Hence
the subject line of this post, everything which follows is just
a guess.
So while it seems to me that Truman has signed up for the
cause of horse welfare and the need to make more rules about the current
state of affairs because he wants the AERC to stop other people from riding
their horses to death, the source of Howard's adamacy about the cause is
quite different. He wants the AERC to stop HIM from riding his horse
to death, and he is sure that the AERC needs to change its state of
mind and improve its rules because HE has had a couple of close calls
with his own horses at endurance rides....while he was riding
completely within the bounds of the rules.
His attitude seems to be,
"if somebody like me, who loves my horses more than anything can ride my
horse/s to the brink of disaster while at the same time being completely
within the rules, there must be something wrong with the
rules."
