THIS is why I wade through some of the absolute
bull that ends up on RideCamp. AND why I joined this newsgroup in the first
place..
Thank you EVER so much for taking the time to write
things like this so that the rest of us can be smarter about caring for our
partners in this great sport we call endurance. Information like this is just
totally priceless.
We've done a good job of selecting horses for
cardiovascular capability. We've done a lousy job of selecting horses
with tough guts. We seem to have this idea that if we just feed "Super
Goo" or buy the right kind of e-lytes or get the right feed mix that we
can somehow manage these finicky guts. And we are wrong. It just
so happens that on horses with less-than-admirable guts, it is the gut that
goes first when they are overridden.
But are they overridden? Absolutely.
Overriding is riding more than the given horse can tolerate on that given
day. And most times, he tries somehow to tell us about it first, if we
will only listen. Darolyn's horse Adios tried to tell her that he didn't
belong on a Pan-Am squad when he had problems drinking at a prior
ride. Unfortunately Darolyn didn't understand what he had told her until
it was too late. But she had the clues right there in her hands in the
history that she shared with us. We unfortunately don't have the
detailed history on other horses that have died in this public forum to see
where they told their riders the same thing. But most times they
do--somewhere, somehow. The signs are not always the same from
horse to horse or from case to case. But our job is to listen, and to
pay attention to what they are trying to tell
us.
Although I am not a fan of making necropsies
mandatory, I do think that in most colic cases, a necropsy is necessary to get
any answers. (And sometimes it is a relief to the rider to know when the
colic IS due to a pre-existing condition!!) I do think that we need to
develop a protocol such as the one Barney has in mind with regard to having a
packet in the hands of ride veterinarians that can be sent to referral
facilities when the need arises, that first provides a form for the
referral facility to fill out and return to AERC with the medical findings in
the case, and secondly assures the veterinarian on the case that if the horse
dies, AERC will stand good the charges for a necropsy (and how to bill and
report). If we need to fund such a thing, I know I've done the math
before, and a $1 rider fee would pretty well cover the costs to the
organization. I for one would be more than happy to add this to my entry
fees for the sake of knowing what happens when horses die after rides.
Not only can we find out WHICH ones are likely overridden, but we can also
remove the burden of guilt in many cases from the rider who rode wisely and
had an unforeseeable situation happen
anyway.
