Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Very good summary, Diane.  I will add a couple of things.

I believe the 30-minute proposal is to perform the full exit exam at  
30 minutes.  A poster on the AERC forum made the observation that  
there are two groups of horses that need care:  the delayed recovery  
group, and the late problem group, where problems develop 30 - 60  
minutes after the horse has finished.

I'm not sure just moving things up helps.  Yes - it lets the vets  
catch horses who are not recovering.  It prevents the scenario where  
the rider goes back to the trailer, and thinks the horse just needs a  
bit more time (I have an hour), when in reality the horse is going  
downhill fast.

However, it then misses the "late crashers", cause the DQ of horses  
who don't go on to develop problems, and it can be a logistics  
nightmare for rides with out-of-camp finish lines.

I'm not sure how to resolve the issue.  A horse whose pulse isn't  
dropping might be in trouble, and should be seen by a vet immediately,  
or it might not.  The best compromise I can think of is to have an  
early pulse *check* (discretion of head vet).  If the horse is at  
criteria, then it has the rest of the hour to present, but *cannot*  
present prior to 1 hour after finish.  If the horse is *not* at  
criteria, it *must* be seen by the vet as soon as possible, who can  
then work with the rider to determine if the horse is in trouble or  
not.  If he is in trouble, then the horse is DQd and treatment is  
started.

None of that requires any rule change.  Lots of vets give instructions  
to present as late as possible.

On Sep 24, 2009, at 1:06 PM, Diane Trefethen wrote:
<snip>
> It is true that the probability of a horse crashing doesn't change  
> because the horse is in a vet check vs at the finish line, but the  
> logistics do.  Once on trail, there can be a significant time delay  
> in getting help to it should it crash, or the horse may be  
> completely inaccessible.  Either case might require euthanasia on  
> the trail.  However, if the horse is in camp and the vets are easily  
> accessible, a delay in getting help is no longer a factor.
<snip>
> That danger does not exist back in camp.  Now the shoe is on the  
> other proverbial foot.  Why should we dq 100 horses when only 5 will  
> need treatment? That is 95 disappointed riders who spent roughly  
> $19,000.00 to get a dq when their horses were not in any difficulty  
> vs 5 horses that may need no more than a shot of banamine.  So is 30  
> minutes reasonable?  To save 5 horses from the possibility of dying  
> out on the trail, yes, we can make a case for that.  But in camp?


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