"The fact that a horse died was given no more than casual attention in the
accountings I have seen. In fact, not only one horse died, two were
killed."
I take some real exception to this
terminology. Your attempt to ignite this tragedy with this language is out of
line. These wonderful horses were not "killed" and you should not implicate
anyone for this tragedy. Would you prefer to have these horses and their
riders burned at the stake on ridecamp without us all knowing ALL the facts. It
is awful but at this point what can anyone truly say? The Welfare of the Horse
Committee will investigate and we will all read the facts. Not speculation. Not
a shemozzle. (look it up)
Furthermore, why didn't you drive on up
to Lake Adelaide and look for your missing rider? How would drag riders have
helped your rider and her horse? They would have no way of treating your
horse.
Tom is an elderly gentleman and can
sometimes uses levity in stressful situations. I suspect that that was what he
was doing with you. After all, he needed to stay there for riders that might
come in so he couldn't rightfully leave Jack Creek. There was one vet at Jack
Creek, waiting for the riders. What a conundrum. It's not a hop, skip and a jump
down the mountain to base camp but about a 90" drive out with no cell phone
reception. Resources in this situation and on this ride are extremely
limited.
How could anyone think at the 50 mile
point that it was only "7 or 14" miles (which was said to riders somewhere along
the way) to the next vet check when they knew that it would be 22-23 miles from
the last vet check to the finish line. Math is not my best subject but that just
doesn't add up to anywhere near 100.
And, by golly, YES, folks should have a
crew with them. Both for the 50 and especially for the 100 mile
ride.
Does anyone question the need for a crew
while doing any other single loop 100 mile ride?? It sounds like you want
to make ride management responsible for everything that happened or didn't
happen (no liability release).
What are you trying to
imply?
Where does one take on some
accountability and responsibility for their choices and decisions?
BTW, I have ridden only the 50 miler
competitively but have been over all of the original 100 mile trail. I can't
imagine why your rider would leave the 50 mile point at 6:00pm (correct me if
I'm wrong here) and hope to travel another 50 miles, a great deal of it in the
dark, and realistically expect to finish.
As far as volunteers, accessibility, drag
riders, safety issues, resources, etc I offer this as a solution:
perhaps we should just start doing some
rides in Central Park.
Lauren Double 8 Ranch Cody,
WY "You don't throw a whole life away just 'cause it's banged up a
little."
