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RE: [RC] Treatment - heidiI don't think there is a difference in this context. If you push your horse to the point where you feel "precautionary" treatment is necessary, IMHO the horse has been over-ridden. Or perhaps other adjectives fit better than "over-ridden"--but they still contain an element of rider judgment. Some posters have stated that "oh, no, these horses were not over-ridden--some tied up near the start." Well, fine. But why did they do that, and what about the event made them do that? This has also been much more of a problem with other high-profile rides than it is at the rank-and-file endurance ride. I'd submit some other causes here that still relate to rider judgment--such as improper warm-up, metabolic issues relative to long hauls, feed changes, etc. While one may argue that these are not "over-riding" they are nonetheless indicative of not "reading" the horse's needs adequately. So they still fall into the realm of what both Jim and I (and others) are talking about here. The bottom line is that when only a third or so of the starting riders are able to complete, SOMETHING IS AMISS! AERC needs to consider carefully whether situations like this are good for our discipline. Perhaps an awards program with a stronger emphasis on "ride" instead of "race" and "one horse, one rider, many miles" is overdue. Amen! Actually we USED to have a system that placed emphasis on the "ride" rather than the "race"--and we still use it for our regional competition. Why on earth we don't go back to such a system to determine our national champions is beyond me. Trilby Pedersen even demonstrated one year that a person could be National Champion with hardly a Top Ten at all--simply by riding lots of miles. One had to always keep an eye to the next ride, because if you messed up on this one and your horse couldn't keep going, you were out of the running. That in itself was a protective factor for the horse. I'm appalled by the lack of concern for the welfare of the horse. It's hard to believe that anyone who really cares about the sport of Endurance and their horse would think that an invasive treatment during or after competition is "normal". I hope the Veterinary Committee and the Horse Welfare Committee will take a long hard look at this situation. I would submit that there is more of a lack of thought here than any particular callousness toward the horses--but it is the horses that take the beating for our collective lack of thinking this through. We put all the eggs in one basket, but what contingencies are there for better rider prep and education (FEI is at least trying to tackle this to some degree, as their rides have the same inherent risks), what oversight is there on course design (FEI at least has a technical delegate oversee the course design and insists that championship courses be run the year prior in a non-championship situation to see if there are any issues with the course), what processes are in place to ameliorate the effects of long hauls (FEI horses need to be there several days ahead of time, which helps to some degree), what qualifications are in place that assure that a horse has the experience (minimum ages and career qualifications of FEI horses at least begin to address this--again, not adequately, but it is something), etc. I don't mean to tout FEI here--they are not AERC, they have a different agenda, and they have their problems, certainly. But in this situation, AERC (which is an organization geared to completion, mileage, and seasons of competition) is really "winging it" putting on championships with little thought as to how they will stress horses differently than the rank-and-file AERC ride. I agree that the Horse Welfare committee should be taking a look at this--and so should several other committees. If AERC members really do want to have this sort of a championship, it needs a great deal more thought and education as to how to ride "championship" sorts of rides. BTW, others have stated that previous NCs have not had such a high treatment rate--and they may be correct. However, there was a lot of griping about inadequate consideration of course difficulty, etc., all of which could well have landed horses in the same boat had weather been different, etc. The range of likely ambient weather conditions is something that is integral to course design--and if the course is not do-able in the event that the weather hits the extremes known for a given area, there is a problem. JMHO. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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