Re: Leaving after ride

[CMKSAGEHIL <CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-04-11 11:50:56 EDT, cbar@lightspeed.net writes:

<< Speaking of vets who ride the ride, why not ask one of them to "be on call"
 Sat. night in exchange for a free ride entry? I'm sure many would be happy
 to do this (Heidi?)  >>

I have certainly pitched in and helped treat horses at rides where I have
ridden.  However, if I am riding seriously at all, I am frequently exhausted
and not in the best of shape to be the primary care for a real crash.  I kind
of resent being asked to wear two hats like this--there are lots of good
veterinarians in our area, and I always feel like on the rare occasions that I
get to ride instead of vet I ought to be able to do just that, and that
management should hire their own crew.  Of course, I am more than happy to
consult if the ride vet gets in a real jam with a tricky one and is less
experienced and looking for ideas about how to treat.  I don't mind pitching
in, either, when the ride is well-covered and there is an unusual circumstance
that taxes the limits of the regular veterinary crew to get everything
covered.

I liked Louise's letter about this subject--no one should judge why other
people leave camp or stay.  As a ride manager, I am happy to see the people
who have other commitments and still find time to ride my rides.  My entries
would be about half what they are without these people.  I am frequently one
of these people myself.  I vetted a ride this weekend (the one Karen Steenhof
and I discussed previously), and yes, it got NASTY cold late in the afternoon,
and most folks went home.  I had to come home myself and inseminate a mare
with shipped semen, which I did just before midnight.  Fortunately, my clients
understand my endurance vice, too.  If, as a ride vet, I have concerns about a
horse being hauled, I most definitely get my two cents' worth in about it.  I
have only run into a few bad apples over the years, and I just don't see this
as a major problem.

Another issue that I discussed with one rider by private post is that things
can go wrong with endurance horses that may not even be related to the ride!
Although this is one of the healthiest bunches of horses I ever get to see,
they still can have pre-existing disease problems, can be coming down with
illnesses, can colic for non-ride reasons, etc.  Two cases that I have been
aware of in the past several years in my area that "crashed" several hours
post-ride after completing with good marks turned out to have massive tumors
in their abdomens.  One had had an abscessed area that ruptured; I don't
remember the exact details about the other.  At any rate, on post mortem, one
realized that it was not the ride that was to blame, and that the horses could
not have been saved in any event.  The ride may perhaps have been the straw on
the proverbial camel, but no more than that.  I also had a mare drop dead
about three miles from the START of a ride I was vetting.  I know the rider
well--she is a very conservative rider who only endurance rides for pleasure,
and her horses are more than fit enough to do what she asks.  At this
particular ride, she left camp in last place, and waved as she walked across
the starting line, announcing how proud she was that the mare had learned not
to charge and pull at the start.  The mare did not appear to be stressed or
uncomfortable in any way.  Out on the trail, the mare simply reared and
crashed down dead.  It turned out that she had an aneurysm in her brain, and
it chose that moment to rupture.  It was a ticking time bomb; it could have
blown just as easily during a romp across the pasture at home.  So don't
forget that it is not always the riding that causes problems for horses.  If
horses only got sick because of endurance rides, we would not have rides and
we would not have practicing veterinarians.  Thankfully there are LESS
problems at rides than I usually see in the equine population at large.

Heidi Smith, DVM--Sagehill Arabians (Oregon)