Re: Pregnant mares

["Robert Morris" <bobmorris@rmci.net>]

You stated>>>>>"but I think AERC's rules about
> pregnant (at least *obviously* pregnant) mares in competition are good
> ones in helping keep the lions from the door."<<<<<<

Please identify the rule number and paragraph where you find this. It was
not in there when I helped codify the AERC Rules and Regulations a few
years ago and I have no recollection of any such rule being inserted since.

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID




----------
> From: Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>
> To: Rayna5 <Rayna5@aol.com>
> Cc: ridecamp@endurance.net
> Subject: Re: Pregnant mares
> Date: Sunday, April 19, 1998 6:42 PM
> 
> Rayna5 wrote:
> > 
> > I dont understand all the reluctance to use bred mares.  I have had
several
> > bred mares over the years and used all of them almost to the last
minute.
> > So IMHO, I think it is MUCH better to use a pregnat mare, with common
sense,
> > than to let her get so out of shape. I think they are better for it all
the
> > way around.
> > Julie Lindeman
> > Brush Prairie Wa
> 
> 
> The key word there is "common sense".  There's a big difference between
> a six mile jaunt down the trail and competing on a heavily pregnant or
> lactating mare on a fifty-mile endurance race.  I'm not a DVM, but I
> would certainly imagine the potential stresses of blood glucose
> depletions, rises in core temperature, dehydration etc could be
> potentially damaging to a fetus as well as the mare.  
> 
> Something else to keep in mind is endurance's public image---for an
> awful long time, we've all had to listen to how cruel we all are to our
> horses making the poor dears go all that way (like as not pulling like a
> train).  We're just now starting to get some grudging validation from at
> least some of the rest of the equestrian world.  Can you imagine the
> uproar from the activists if a pregnant mare decided to foal out on the
> trail, or got into trouble and died or lost the foal?  Yikes.
> 
> I ride my mares right through their pregnancy too, and congratulate you
> for keeping your mares in shape as well, but I think AERC's rules about
> pregnant (at least *obviously* pregnant) mares in competition are good
> ones in helping keep the lions from the door.
> 
> Just my .o2.
> 
> Susan Garlinghouse
>