Bruce: You've hit the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned. I trully appreciate your insight (sometimes comical often times dead serious) about various subjects involving AERC, its members, horses and life in general.
A couple other things I've noticed 1) the belly achers generally have no positive suggestions for improvement (usually something along the lines of "somebody should do something") and 2) the biggest complainers haven't been doing much riding lately.
Keep up the good work. Marsh the muleman --- On Sun, 9/6/09, Bruce Weary <bweary@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Bruce Weary <bweary@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [RC] The "Derby" To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Sunday, September 6, 2009, 10:58 PM
Truman, you are really confusing me, and I imagine many people here and among the ranks of AERC. If there were a national award for the person who publicly (here) expresses more disdain for the AERC's and the HWC's efforts to protect our horses, you would easily be voted "Man of the Year." I took a little stroll through the Ridecamp Archives, and it is literally strewn with comments from you over the years about what you apparently feel is an embarrassing dearth of protective measures, protests and punitive actions taken in order to protect our horses. You are at times uninformed, at others simply opinionated, but always angrily enthusiastic when it comes to standing up for what you feel is appropriate protection measures for our horses, and you rail at the current shortcomings as you see them. Your posts are there for anyone to review, and they date back as far as 1995 or further, if anyone cares to dig. Yet,
you portend to have 20/20 hindsight vision, and assert that hundreds of horses that are not fed for, bred for, conditioned for, or experienced in endurance riding, in a land you likely have never visited, would be undoubtedly safe when involved in an event that is billed as the "world's toughest endurance ride." You then say that voicing concern about the potential outcomes, especially in light of initially insufficient veterinary supervision (which was eventually provided in great measure from sources outside the ride's management) was folly, bordering on uninformed fanaticism.Your proof of this clairvoyance, if I'm not speaking out of turn, is that, so far, no serious illnesses or fatalities have been reported. Yet, again, in your previous posts, you have many times expressed your disdain for riders that you personally suspect are overriding their horses, but you just can't prove it, and you often admonish AERC to take more
of what you deem to be effective and punitive action. "It's all about the horse," you often like to say. You use that quote almost as often as the one about a drunken sailor spending money on shore leave, or some such. Well, even you can see the disparity here. Why in the world would you so enthusiastically berate folks from expressing concern about such a potentially dangerous equine endeavor as the the Mongol Derby, as it was first described to us? The fact that it turned out well, as far as we can tell, is a reason to take a deep sigh of relief, but surely not reason enough to say "I told you so," and suggest that anyone having expressed concern at the outset ought now to feel embarrassed and ashamed at holding such ridiculous thoughts in the first place. Ah, that we all had your vision. I read that the "Suicide Race" held annually in Omak, Washington has only had four horse deaths since 2001. In the years that they didn't have a
death, would it be appropriate for that ride's supporters to respond to those who wish to see that ride banned by saying, "I told you so?" By your reasoning, it's not much of a stretch. Is it that you care about horses in general, or only those entered in AERC sanctioned events? I am anticipating an angry response that goes nowhere, but one can always hope for an intelligent rebuttal that earnestly addresses the concerns mentioned above. Bruce Weary, Member, AERC Horse Welfare Committee
