In response to Steph's post about glass houses. As
far as death reports by the WHC, the summery of 2005 states:
"There were 21,000 starts by horses in AERC-sanctioned endurance and limited
distance rides in 2005. The loss of eight of our equine partners is far less in
percentage than those horses that died in the general population, and a tiny
fraction of those lost at race tracks, but still our organization grieves. Our
goal in reporting and disclosing these fatalities is to learn and educate to
further guard the welfare of our companions on the trail."
Three died from colic, the other five of things that may or may not be
related to riding.
The 2004 summery states that 4 out of six horses passed away due to a fall,
an aneurysm, an enterolith and getting tangled in a fence.
I would love to tell you what the summery for 2006 is, but it isn't posted
yet even though it is April 3, 2007. My point is that while one horse
death is too many, according to these reports, the horses are not necessarily
dying from "racing". I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.
Where are the fatality reports from the other countries? Where is their HWC?
Ours may not be perfect but the effort is there. And it is public. I read some
comments from The Duck and he asked where were the mileage records for some of
these horses that are raced? I can't quote him but his point was that he would
stack AERC records for horses that both raced and accumulated mileage against
any of the international race horses of today. Amen.
I remember being told that those from the President Cup had the money to do
research so that they could race those horses at that speed. Nothing was
mentioned about spending money on what to do about those that didn't.
International competition money seems to by buying speed, not welfare. Is that
the research you refer to, Steph?
Somebody please explain the thought process on "progressive closing of
vetgates; - the idea of increasing the minimum speed and vetgate cutoff at WECs
so that horses weren't straggling in for hours."
We ARE still calling it "endurance", right?
IF the idea that at the WEC the horse and rider teams are the cream of the
crop, in peak condition and have been through the toughest assessment possible
to assure that they are READY for such a ride, then how do we have horses
"straggling in for hours."? That makes no sense to me at all. How come at the
President's Cup, they were just pulled? No stragglers there, just the
few that finished and the rest who didn't. And, since there should
be no shame in being pulled and the vets are just super cautious, why not
give the rest of the "stragglers" the option to finish?
That is, if they are just stragglers. Or could this be a way to make the pull
rate look like less of a problem? Let's stop them before we have to pull
them? Either way, they are not going to finish. There is something not right
with that idea. It is looking less and less like endurance and more like track
racing. One winner, the rest loosers.
With as many rides as we have per year, I surely don't see our completion
rate as low as the big rides "over there". We have a few tough ones but "over
there" they only have a few rides, period. I am not a numbers person but I
think I am pretty close.
So yeah, I think our backyard version does look a tad better than the elite.
I don't think we all have to have the same goals for competing, but I do
believe that there is a common goal for the end results. Horses that are able to
go down the trail another day. I, too, would like to see some sort of follow up
on horse that are racing the "flat, fast, desert" courses and how these
horses are able to continue at that level, or not.
So Steph, If you want to convince me that FEI and international riding is
trying to better the sport, as far as horse welfare is concerned, show me.
Tell me what is going on with some of the fastest horses from the past elite
races. Maybe a "Where are they Now?" kind of story. Tell me what the
owners and riders have done to form their own HWC and how much money is being
spent in that area. Then maybe I for one, could be a bit more supportive.
Someone said that the owners of such elite horses always made sure their
horses went to greener pastures to retire.
Where are the greener pastures in the desert?
Lisa Salas, The Odd fArm
P.S. I also attended the APEX clinic this weekend. It was very interesting
and educational. I do hope someone does a write up about in for
EN.
