Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Title: Reply to Suicide Race

I really hesitated before I replied to the Suicide race posting but I felt I had to for several reasons.  I don’t believe Ridecamp is the appropriate place to start a campaign against another horse sport.  Before passing judgment you might want to learn some more balanced information about the Suicide race.  I live in Okanogan just south of Omak and have seen many Suicide races over the years.  There are definitely dangers involved; however, it is a controlled race with qualifications for the riders, horses, limits on number of horses running the course and veterinary controls.  It is a traditional Native American right of passage.  It was not invented for the rodeo; years ago the rodeo organizers invited the tribal members to bring a race to the Stampede.  The horses that compete are bred, trained and conditioned for the races.  They are as eager at the start of the race as any endurance horse is at the start of their race.  If you look at the results from year to year you will see many horses in the top four places over the course of several years along with many jockeys with long career records.  Last year there was a terrible accident and horses were lost.  It was very sad and their owners and riders were devastated.  It is NOT an every year occurrence.  It is actually more common for jockeys to be injured than horses. 

I am not necessarily a huge fan of the Suicide race or of rodeo but I think it is unwise to start attacking other people’s horse sports.  Over the years (I have enduranced since 1983) I have met people who think it is cruel to ride a horse 50-100 miles in one day.  I recently had a conversation with someone who thought multi-day rides on one horse were extremely cruel.  Endurance horses have been known to have career ending injuries; they have been known to die.  If someone wanted to take statistics on treated horses/deaths etc I am sure they could make endurance look bad.  We know our sport has strived to become safer over the years (CRI and fit to continue etc) but to an outsider it could still look like we are callous to our horses’ welfare by “pushing them to run 100 miles in a day”.  The Suicide race organizers have also worked to make the race safer over the last several years and I am sure will continue to do so.  Be careful of throwing stones when you live in a glass house people. 

Kathleen Ferguson AERC#717