Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Yes, this is definitely the case.  A classic case is in the assigning of letter grades to gut sounds.  One of our CT region vets is "hard" on grading gut sounds (and feels that an "A" is applicable to good loud rumbles that he/she can hear without a stethoscope), and a lot of riders get their knickers in a twist over it.  What they fail to realize is, it's just a letter on a vet card...it doesn't necessarily mean that their horse is in trouble, or that the vet thinks their horse sucks, or is a cause for shame.  Some people take these letter grades too $%#^@ seriously.  <G>  I guess they take some sort of pride in their horse "getting all As" or something.  Generally, our vets will make a point of telling riders that the horse is "pretty quiet" if they are concerned.  Vets tend to vary somewhat in their personal "scales" in assigning letter grades.  After a while, one learns how each vet tends to grade, and takes that into consideration.  As long as the RIDER knows what's normal for his/her horse, don't get too worked up over a letter. 

 

Case in point...my gelding Bear tends to have kinda quiet gut sounds.  We have 7 horses, and I've gone out and listened to all 7 in the pasture at various times (I just like to know what's normal for my horses), and he's *always" the quietest.  Ok, so that's just him.  He's even sometimes gotten a B on guts when vetting in on Friday evening before a ride, and usually gets Bs on guts all day long during the ride, with an occasional A or C thrown in for variety.  As long as he's EDPP, perky, alert, etc., I don't worry about it...I know my horse.  We did the Goethe 100 in Florida last December.  He got As the entire ride (a few A- mixed in) on *everything* except gut sounds, and had excellent CRIs the entire ride.  He got all Bs (or B+ or B-) on guts, with one A- and one C+ for variety.  That's just Bear...my stealth pony.  :)  And the A and C on guts came from two different vets than the one assigning the Bs...so perhaps those would have been Bs as well, had the other vet listened to him.

 

Dawn Carrie, Texas

and Bear (it's embarrassing when my tummy rumbles...)

 

On 8/30/07, Carla Richardson <richardson.carla@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Wouldn't this be true in any ride, if more than one vet was used?  If only one vet is evaluating all the horses, even then there could be some variation as the day progressed, but with several vets looking at horses, it seems there would always be some differences of opinion.

 

I have very limited experience, so am not try to stir the pot, just making a comment about vetting in and vetting out, if more than one person is involved, then "scientifically" you will have differences, I would think.  I can't think how that could be avoided.  I'd like to hear discussion on this issue as well.  (especially if it would take us away from all *slaughter* topics...)