Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Bruce Weary states:

 

"Frank, you mentioned:  "How the horse is prepared and how the trail is
ridden, how the goals are pursued on the day of an endurance endeavor,
are STILL the major determinants as to the majority of ill-effects a
horse might experience due to endurance aspirations."
  This is a very well thought and common sense theory. Many people
would agree with it at first glance. However, the horse death reports of
the last few years don't support it in the least. There is no
discernible pattern amongst the horses as to level of preparation, speed
ridden or the goals of the rider."

 

Bruce,

I'm happy to see that what affects a horse either living or dying doing this sport of Endurance is being looked at so carefully.

 

However, in the portion of my email (snipped in the para. one, above), I speak "to the MAJORITY of ill-effects a horse might experience due to endurance aspirations".    If I thought the majority of ill-effects was the number of DEATHS...well, the AERC would be out of the Endurance Business. 

 

Though I consider a horse death due to participating in the sport of endurance to be a sad and repugnant thing, I'll leave the correlatives to more qualified individuals, with access to all the relevant information, to determine, though I hope "common sense" in our sport is not something to now be avoided or discounted.

 

As I'm certain folks are tired of seeing my thoughts and name so frequently in the last day or so, I will just wish you continued Good Fortune, Bruce. (....that and, well, UCLA v. KANSAS is on)

 

Frank Solano