Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> But Maryben, horses STILL die.  And they will die if you make the pulse
> criterion 56, or 46 or 26!!  Some people are just @$$holes and no amount
of
> legislation or regulation will keep them from killing their mounts!
Scott, we now have rides with a hundred or more riders and we are alarmed
that we have a small handful of deaths in the entire nation.  When the 72
pulse was the norm, we had rides with 20 riders, only a handful of rides per
region, and deaths at rides were commonplace.  The majority of deaths then
were due to sheer exhaustion.  The riders were not particularly @$$holes as
you put it--they simply rode to criteria without knowing any better, and
found that at the end, their companions were dead.  While I haven't seen the
AERC death stats either, I know what I've seen as a ride vet--most of the
deaths I've been aware of in recent years have been due to pre-existing
conditions or accidents, and the few that weren't really HAVE tended to
involve "@$$holes" who in many cases were cautioned by vets and ignored
those cautions.  We've already gone a long way in death prevention, simply
by lowering pulses to 60 and having gates into holds.

Heidi


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