Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

 A small but significant percentage of children ushered by their 
parents into emergency rooms around the country have been physically 
abused. The great majority probably fell off their bike or horse or the 
monkey bars at school. Whatever the reason they are sick or injured, 
legitimate parents should not feel embarrassed to present their child 
for treatment on the odd chance that someone might be staring and 
wondering if the child is there because of abuse or because she fell off 
her skateboard. In the cases of abuse, the parent can be dealt with, and 
harshly, later. The child's timely treatment is paramount.
 If you know you didn't abuse your horse but is showing signs of 
illness, as is often the case in those horses needing treatment, be a 
good "parent" and present him to the vet for evaluation and possible 
treatment. If you did abuse the horse, you're probably clueless or in 
denial, and the sport will deal with you. If you see someone's horse is 
in obvious distress and the rider is apparently not handling it 
effectively, tactfully report the situation to the ride vet, and let him 
saunter on over and deal with it. No one likes a vigilante, and our vets 
are fully prepared and trained to handle situations like these with tact 
and skill. It will take time to slowly turn the bow of our ship toward 
greater awareness and higher standards of horse care by our riders, and, 
thankfully, these are still relatively rare situations as compared to 
all ride entries. Immediate gratification would be nice, but, hey, this 
endurance. Let's stay the course and we'll get there.   Bruce Weary

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=