After
reading the article - thanks for the heads up that it was there Laura, I note
that 3 of the deaths fall into the "stuff happens" catagory. Lost in the
forest, a fall and eating blister beetles could happen anywhere at
anytime. So, we really have 8 deaths to deal with as "Endurance
related".
2 were
new or newish riders on new horses - the education outreach should help here and
it will be interesting to see if this statistic declines in following
years
the 3 100 mile horses that died were all ridden by riders with
experience and there is no discernible connecting thread. It seems that we
would be well served to fund research that addresses stress in competing horses
to see if we can identify factors that would lead us to pull at risk animals
before they deteriorate. The colic cases are all over the map and it will
take several years of collecting this kind of data to see if there is any set of
circumstances that identifies higher risk factors.
A
thought regarding the heat stroke horse might be to advise that temperature be
added to the vet check parameters when the temperature or heat index exceeds
some threshold.
The
Paso death is questionable as a "ride death" unless there are more circumstances
to tie the high pulse at the ride to the subsequent tie up and
laminitis.
Laura,
congratulations to the committee on putting together the statistics and
publishing them. Fact rather than rumor is the first requirement for
forward progress.
Alison
Farrin
-----Original Message----- From: Laura Hayes
[mailto:mark@xxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 11:20
AM To: Ridecamp Subject: [RC] Welfare Committee
Data
Interestingly, after all the hullabaloo a year
ago about AERC not addressing, not tracking and not caring about horse deaths,
the 'less than a year old' welfare committee has published a chart of horse
deaths in 2003 and there has been two whole posts regarding the
information.
What gives? Are there no thoughts regarding
the information? Those who were sure it was seasoned riders killing
horses, those who were sure it was new riders, and those who were just sure,
are all silent now? Did I miss something?
Also published in EN this month (on line if you
haven't gotten it yet) is a case study of the Adios PAC death. Any
comments? The committee has worked hard and spent many hours....anyone
out there care to comment???
