[RC] A more balanced look at the Suicide Race - Kathleen
What follows is a copy of the post which I wrote in response
to a Suicide Race thread last year. I still feel the same way. You walk a very
fine line when you attack another group’s race particularly when
endurance had two horses killed in a vehicle – horse accident in a race
to the finish less than two weeks ago. And by the way, I saw all four races
this year and the horse that won all four days looked like a million bucks. Remember
to consider that an animal rights group may not have the most balanced coverage…would
be interesting to see what they would write after a big event where things don’t
go so well…
REPOSTED FROM A PREVIOUS YEAR:
“I really hesitated before I replied to the Suicide
race posting but I felt I had to for several reasons. I don’t believe
Ridecamp is the appropriate place to start a campaign against another horse
sport. Before passing judgment you might want to learn some more balanced
information about the Suicide race. I live in Okanogan just south of Omak and
have seen many Suicide races over the years. There are definitely dangers
involved; however, it is a controlled race with qualifications for the riders,
horses, limits on number of horses running the course and veterinary controls.
It is a traditional Native American right of passage. It was not invented for
the rodeo; years ago the rodeo organizers invited the tribal members to bring a
race to the Stampede. The horses that compete are bred, trained and
conditioned for the races. They are as eager at the start of the race as any
endurance horse is at the start of their race. If you look at the results from
year to year you will see many horses in the top four places over the course of
several years along with many jockeys with long career records. Last year
there was a terrible accident and horses were lost. It was very sad and their
owners and riders were devastated. It is NOT an every year occurrence. It is
actually more common for jockeys to be injured than horses.
I am not necessarily a huge fan of the Suicide race or of
rodeo but I think it is unwise to start attacking other people’s horse
sports. Over the years (I have enduranced since 1983) I have met people who
think it is cruel to ride a horse 50-100 miles in one day. I recently had a
conversation with someone who thought multi-day rides on one horse were
extremely cruel. Endurance horses have been known to have career ending
injuries; they have been known to die. If someone wanted to take statistics on
treated horses/deaths etc I am sure they could make endurance look bad. We
know our sport has strived to become safer over the years (CRI and fit to
continue etc) but to an outsider it could still look like we are callous to our
horses’ welfare by “pushing them to run 100 miles in a day”.
The Suicide race organizers have also worked to make the race safer over the
last several years and I am sure will continue to do so. Be careful of
throwing stones when you live in a glass house people. “
Kathleen Ferguson AERC#717
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