Many of the people who work endurance rides like Margie Beesom are not
thoroughly experienced with horses or with the sport. As a result, they are
often very critical of a rider when a horse gets hurt or sick. It is very
true that the horse in competition is depending upon its rider to care for
it. However, it is not true that endurance riders, including the rider whose
horse became ill on the Sunland Ride, are so competitive that they ignore all
signs of trouble or hide them from veterinarians. Excessive criticism like
Margie's can only cause newer riders to fear having horse problems
discovered, and hide them because they don't want the stigma attached to
having a horse treated at a ride.
For almost 25 years, I have been involved in endurance riding. I have never
known a rider to deliberately stress a horse beyond its ability. Accidents
happen, and horses get sick now and then for reasons which are usually never
discerned. If something happens, it is more likely to happen with the front
runners, just because they are going faster, taking more risks, and so are
more likely to "over ride". That's what sports are about. The sick horse at
the Sunland Ride had a record of strong finishes without problems. The rider
is competitive, but no more so than the others who seek the best placings.
It is important to understand that in any sport, if you do a lot of it, you
will eventually have a problem. At one time it was said that unless you had
ridden the famous 100 mile in one day Tevis Cup Ride, you weren't really an
experienced endurance rider. It is probably more true that if you have never
had a horse get hurt or sick and require treatment on a ride, then you
haven't ridden enough of them.
It is also important to clarify that although this horse wan in great
distress and benefitted a great deal from intense veterinary treatment at the
ride, it did not have a kinked intestine. It is quite likely that the
difficulties experienced by the horse were triggered by some unidentified
health problem which was present before the ride and was aggravated by the
stress of competitiion.
I applaud riders who drop out of the competition because things aren't quite
right. However, if everything had seemed absolutely perfect about ahorse
before a rider hit the trail, there wouldn't be very many riders. Even the
best and most conscientious riders can miss a symptom, or dismiss the
importance of a change in behavior. If veterinarians remove every horse from
competition which doesn't look just as good as it did in the beginning,
there would be no finishers on difficult rides like Sunland. In fact, as a
sport, endurance riding has fewer serious problems or horse fatalities than
any other equine endeavor. Because of veterinary supervision and the great
amount of time a rider spends with a particular horse, our ability to
sidetrack failure is remarkable. There is always room for improvement, but I
would never trade the excellent treatment horses receive in endurance riding
for the result orientated manipulation used on the track or in the show
ring.
Roxanne Greene
Assistant to the Manager
Sunland Endurance Ride