This incident should NOT reflect negatively on the Tevis or the sport of endurance. This was going to happen to my horse no matter what he was doing, even standing in the pasture at home
This is so very true, and can happen to anyone, anywhere. Our stallion Salazar sf was pulled surrepticiously from endurance a few years ago after having a case of endocarditis - bacterial infection of the head of the aeortic valve. As a result, we were informed that we "might as well ride him, since he could just as easily drop dead standing in his stall." So after considerable rehab time, we put him back to work He LOVES trail (almost as much as the skirts!) and after sufficient time, the vets examined him again - and were shocked - he had such minimal murmur left they could only detect it with a digital steth! So....we put him back into conditioning very slowly and eventually he completed a few more LD rides. He is 19 now, and since he could "drop dead standinging in his stall" we are riding him - he has captured multiple B show championships two seasons ago and is back on the trail. The bottom line is that circulatory and cardiac issues are crap shoots and one can never tell, never detect, until something happens. We cannot beat ourselves up - or anyone else - when these things happen.
