After the comments made recently on ridecamp about the
return of vet cards by ride management and how they are used by riders I have
to add my two cents worth. I laugh when I hear comments by riders about
how their horse received all A’s as that can lull a rider into a false
sense of security. One of the few times my gelding got all A’s at the
lunch vet check, he went back to the trailer and coliced. I seldom ever
look at the ride card after a vet check but instead depend on my own evaluation
of my horse. Scoring by vets is so subjective and people get their
panties in a wad if their horse gets a B or even a C. My highest mileage
horse seldom if ever gets good scores on gut sounds and is often a C at lunch. I
am more concerned if he is eating, drinking, pooping and peeing than what a vet
gives me as a score. The key is in knowing what is normal for your own
animal. Using a vet card to evaluate a ride from year to year can be
misleading due to all the other factors including weather that go into a particular
day on the trail. I recently completed a ride that had a 1 plus hour slower
finishing time from the previous year due to weather conditions that were much
hotter than last year over the exact same trail. I am in favor of vets
giving just an okay on the card and every rider should have a stethoscope and
know how to use it for pulse and gut sounds. I am a firm believer that it
is the rider’s responsibility to take care of their horse and that the
vets are there to help everyone get through the ride. Granted there are
some idiots that need the vets to keep them from over riding their horses but
the vast majority of endurance riders care about their horses and don’t
want to get them in trouble. Before costs became prohibitive, many ride
managers used to send out ride results and ride cards to each participant and I
have lots of ride cards in my scrap books, but I recognize them for what they
are worth which is only the paper they are printed on.
