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Karen wrote:

perhaps poor planning from a group who has no experience with
horses........and perhaps should be starting with a less risky event
for their first time out?

Kat responded:
Actually this is a group that started out with a much riskier event their first 
time out.  The group started with a 10,000 mile car rally...

Well Kat, I'm gathering that the majority of endurance people responding to this, feel that a dead CAR is less important than a dead horse!!! And that is the main concern here. 
I have absolutely NO PROBLEM what-so-ever with "survival" games, adventures & challenges involving only people. "The Mis-Adventurist" DO have a history of putting on these EXTREME races but this IS the first one they have EVER put on that involves horses. And horses are NOT cars with replaceable parts. 
Sheesh! There is nothing SMART about this Rally. It is not supposed to be SMART. It is EXTREME ADVENTURE and that is what makes it appealing. It is geared toward attracting people with type A personalities who are ALL ABOUT being willing to accept RISKS & TAKING CHANCES! These participants are admittedly RISK TAKERS and definitely will be doing so with their own lives, safety and health and more than likely, ALSO will be taking chances and risks with their horses. And there in lies our issue. These participants will not "KNOW" or be able to "READ" a single one of their 20 horses that they have never once even seen or ridden before jumping on their backs for the first time. And what if they "read" them WRONG???? And we all have at times.At least I am willing to admit that I have. How EXACTLY will they know when the horse is "not acting right"??? There are 800 horses that will be involved. Just how many of that 800 is it ACCEPTABLE to have die or permanently lame up? Is it OK if only 1% (8 horses) die? How about 10%? (80 horses) Despite how tough these little horses are, the chances are much greater that when you throw all the risky variables of this race into a pot, things can go terribly wrong.

I looked up your record Kat, and you have an impressive 5235 endurance miles......BUT you also have 21 PULLS! 4 for Metabolic, 9 for lameness and 8 for rider option. To me that just SCREAMS that you already know that unforeseen things can and DO go wrong even with a rider experienced enough to "read their horse and it's abilities". And these are horses that you CARE about and belong to you or your friends, not like these Mongolian Ponies who will be just one of 20 that the riders wont know, wont ever see again, care about nor have to follow through with their daily recovery treatment for lameness or injuries etc.

The Duck IS indeed humorously callous when it comes to the human participants in our XP rides and his intolerance for their idiocy. He is also COMPLETELY intolerant when it comes to idiocy in how you treat your horse. Sometimes though, that "idiocy" just comes as a result of inexperience in a particular area. If you've never had a horse colic under you nor have even SEEN one who is, even if you've have read about it, would you be able to recognize the symptoms in a horse you are totally unfamiliar with? And soon enough or be able to respond in the right way depending upon how serious or desperate the situation? There is a REAL possibility that the variables of this Race and the inexperience of the riders, the type & size of the horses involved, the remote location with no guarantee whatsoever of daily, (let alone rapid), and then only BASIC emergency veterinary care and treatment, certainly ups the risk factor to an unacceptable level that many of us are not willing to condone. Remember too that if something gets serious out there, the horse is only going to be able to receive field treatment. No transportation to a REAL veterinary hospital (there are none) or surgery. The Duck will be the first to tell you that he doesn't keep enough fluids on hand to do anything more than stabilize your horse, then it is up to YOU to get him to a care facility for serious treatment or surgery. He is obligated to watch the other horses throughout the ride and it is up to the rider with the horse needing treatment to find further treatment.I would be VERY surprised if this rally is supplying a mobile veterinary unit capable of doing sterile surgeries. They are probably not carrying anything more than a few dozen liters of fluids, some banamine and the basics. A horse in REAL trouble is PROBABLY doomed. Lets be serious and look at the amount of horses involved here. 800! 800 small, hairy, inexperienced, unconditioned, unshod, half-broke ponies,ridden by folks inexperienced in distance riding, few of whom have probably ever had to diagnose equine issues on the trail, on their own, without a vet,BEFORE they get the horse into serious problems. Let's add to that, the additional truth that these ponies are probably carrying huge parasite loads that may not be of concern in their tough day to day lives, but could easily turn against them if they get in a stressful or metabolic problem. These 800 horses, some of whom you can bet will have transmittable viral problems, will be eating and drinking next to other horses then will move on to another station and other *susceptible* horses along the way.... What are the chances that some of these horses will get sick and be ridden while in an untreated and compromised health anyway? 800 horses? What are the chances?
 
I think we are all in agreement that we could care less whether the participants of this rally have the IQ of a soapdish and don't give a $#!% if they get themselves in a heap of trouble, get lost, sick or possibly die. We don't really care diddly-squat about THEM. We ARE concerned for the horses in their care. Those horses are still dependent on the riders making wise decisions even when they are puking their guts out from food poisoning, are sick, dehydrated, and have diarrhea, are sitting cock-eyed in the saddle or are lost.After reading the letter of warning, what are the chances of THAT happening too? I personally think that it would be a better challenge to just turn the people loose out there without a horse at all. Just their camping gear, a compass & map and let them find their way from yurt to yurt. As you say, it's only 25 miles!
You say Kat,that many of the participants will indeed have had horse experience. Well I am a REAL newbie to the sport of endurance with just 1,000 competitive miles under me as of last week. All of which are on the same horse. I HAD considered myself "experienced and horse savvy" before I took this sport up. I had owned and ridden quarter horses my entire life, done gymkhanas, a little barrel stuff, horse shows, 4H, rounded up cows etc.I thought of myself as a REAL horse person.....till I got into ENDURANCE riding. In all the years (almost 5 decades)that I had ridden horses before entering the sport, I had NEVER taken my horses pulse with a stethoscope nor knew what an acceptable working heart rate was. I have never had a horse "tie-up" or colic, have ulcers or even go lame.(I had one get cut up in barbed wire once though)Not till I started riding endurance did I REALIZE how little EXPERIENCE I really had in knowing how the inside of a horse really works and all the ways things can go wrong just because "I didn't know better". So far in my 1,000 miles, I have had 2 pulls and I am embarrassed by both because though not serious, both could have been prevented if I had "known better" or ridden slower. One was at an XP Duck ride on the 5th day in the snow with a "RO lameness".I have completed three 100's now. I got my second pull ever on my 4th 100 after crossing the finish line at Swanton in 6th place. Cabo pulsed down and reached criteria but then totally stiffened up. A METABOLIC pull, & I was scared. He was fine in a couple of hours but it could have gone VERY wrong. This is the ONLY horse I have ridden in endurance and though I ride him several times a week, I am constantly in fear that I may not "read him right" and cause him some serious injury. This is a horse I own and supposedly KNOW, not one of 20 that  the rally riders will have seen for the first time when they jump on. Though you say that if these riders are "smart" they will probably go slow or even walk beside the horse.The Adventurists are billing this with "thundering hooves RACING across the Steppes"....Once the riders actually arrive at the next "station" there is NOTHING that states a veterinarian will be there waiting to check and attend to the arriving horse. (Isn't it THEN that we are told the horse needs to be treated if needed, NOT the next day or a day or two later.) Upon arrival at the station, the rider can eat, sleep or just grab the next mount and take off on the next leg while his previous mount may not see a vet for quite a while (hours a day or days?) The Mongolian herdsman who will be running these stations have probably never given IV fluids, orally tubed a horse, can treat for metabolic and electrolyte imbalances, colic, tie-up etc. and many of these things need to be addressed IMMEDIATELY or they can result in DEATH. You say Kat, that: "if they have been told that if they over-ride their horses that they will have to get off and walk and drag the horse with them."  Isn't trying to drag a horse to keep it moving while it's "tying up" a no-no and can cause further injury and distress or death? I respect you Kat and have always appreciated your level-headedness when I read your comments here on ridecamp. But not in THIS case. Again, I am a real NEWBIE to this sport and as such, maybe some of the basic warnings to us inexperienced riders like me are still fresh in my head in comparison to old-timers like you, but this rally just seems to have too many unacceptable variables to condone it. As an equine interest group concerned for the welfare of the horse, we are just the type of group who needs to pressure the promoters into at least putting better over site in place if not entirely stopping the event altogether. To condone this rally as is, it may as well be the same as giving the message that someone who has never so much as ridden a single LD, can jump up on a strange horse and go ride cavalry style, what is equivalent to the distance of 7 back to back Tevis's. Maybe not 100 miles in 24 hours, but with "technical difficulties" that I would rate right up there in the same category.But that is JMHO!

Melissa Margetts





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