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And that is perfectly within you right to do so and express that opinion.

We have the luxury of living in a society that where not only is the 
ability to speak our opinions an inalienable right - it is a 
responsibility. It is what makes our society work. Differences of 
opinions mix to form a social consensus which form our moral and legal 
values of what we find acceptable as a society. What is acceptable 
changes over time as we hopefully become more "civilized."

During the 1992 Olympics many around the world were appalled by the poor 
condition of the weaving, stumbling eventing horse shown on world wide 
television after his run of the cross country course. This resulted in 
social pressure which led to political pressure to better regulate high 
level eventing. This is how a civilized culture works. In the Atlanta 
Olympics you saw two things, no television coverage of the equine events 
so such and image would not be seen again and more concern for what the 
horses were being asked to do. In 1992 the courses were getting to the 
point that the were dangerous to the horse and rider. That was modulated 
by the raising of the social conscience that said that is unacceptable.

Do I feel compassion for a person that may have lost a horse to in an 
equine sport - sure I do, but that compassion is tempered by the fact 
that when a person promotes a horse in an equine event it is the 
person's choice not the horse's choice. The person takes on a 
responsibility - IMO - for the proper stewartship of that horse. When 
that person does not exercise that stewardship for whatever reason, 
money, ego, etc. - that that persons has failed the horse and all the 
other riders in that sport that do properly exercise thier stewardship 
to their equine partners. When an organization (AERC, USEA, etc.) 
sanctions an event they also take on a responsibility to insure that the 
event does not put the equines at undue risk. The USEA does not have to 
sanction every eventing meet that takes place and the AERC does not have 
to sanction every endurance ride that takes place. In sanctioning such 
events they are "certifying" that certain standards will be met by that 
event.

My view is quite simple, a dead horse in any equine sanctioned event - 
swans an investigation into the reasons why by a minimum the sanctioning 
body. If it is found that there is an unacceptable level of risk to the 
equines that was a contributing factor in the death, then actions should 
be taken to mitigate the risk in future events. In my opinion to not do 
so is irresponsible.

Don't get me wrong if Billy Bob and Jimmy Joe what to go put up an 8 
foot jump, lay down 100 buck to be collected by who's horse can clear 
it, throw down a case of beer each to get up the nerve and go for it - 
that's their right to do so. However, it is also the right of the 
citizens to become outraged if one or both horses die and petition their 
government to put restrictions on such behavior.

But for the USEA to sanction such an event (which I am sure they would 
not) would be totally inappropriate ind irresponsible and it would be up 
to us the citizens to petition our Government to address it if they 
would not respond to social pressure.

So you can pound on me all you want , call me whatever you want, accuse 
me of being "over the top," etc.,  for expressing my opinion. That is 
your right. However, it is also my right to have such an opinion and 
express such. At some point during social discourse diverse opinions 
meld into a social conscience that is the foundation of our civilization.

Cheers
Truman

Diane Trefethen wrote:
> Okay... am I the only one on Ridecamp who feels Truman has stepped 
> completely outside the bounds of common decency?  I consider it 
> obscene that he would say it is worse for a horse to break its neck on 
> a jump than for a child to do so.


--

“With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things 
and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil 
things, that takes religion.” Steven Weinberg – Nobel Laureate, Physics


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