Re: RC: Dance Line

[Liz Newfield <lizfield@jeffnet.org>]

Hey, thanks for sharing your story.  It's one of those things you can never
predict.  Back in the 70s I had a horse injure his curb on a ride.  I never
did endurance ride him again because I was afraid he'd do it again and be
lame forever.  I didn't want to part with him so I quit the sport until a
few years ago.  

Liz

At 09:50 AM 3/23/2000 -0800, David LeBlanc wrote:
>At 09:02 AM 3/23/00, Liz Newfield wrote:
>
>>>I have no opinion about what happened to Howard because I was not there
>>and I do not know him but before you write posts like this one, you better
>>make darn sure that nothing bad ever happens to one of your horses and you
>>can't do that.  
>
>Amen.
>
>>I recently had an experience not very different from Howard's.  I was
>>fortunate that my horse didn't get as sick but it did take him several days
>>to recover.  He is a 9 year old horse that is well condiditioned.  About 3
>>miles of easy riding up a road that he has traveled many times he had a
>>major tie up, had to be rescued with a trailer (I count my blessings that
>>he was accessable) and rushed to the vet for treatment.  Why?  We don't
>>know, though there are certainly enough theories.  Sometimes it just
happens.
>
>Mine wasn't metabolic - my beloved old Skipper bowed a tendon at Hahira.
>We went to jump a small ditch (not my idea - I hate to jump), he lost his
>footing on the push up in the sand, and we came down short on the other
>side.  He recovered in a few months, but died of old age when he was still
>in Georgia, and I'd moved up to WA - I never got to ride him again.  I hate
>the fact my last ride on him was painful for both of us, and I miss the old
>boy so much.  I really don't know whether this happened because I was
>overriding him and he was too tired, or whether stuff happens.  Heart rate
>monitor said he was in good shape when it happened, so I don't know.
>Feeling him slip, the fear as we went into the jump, and the horrible jolt
>when he came down hard and slammed me on top of him haunts me.  Still
>didn't stop me from kicking myself to this day with a hundred things I
>should have done differently if I were only omniscient enough to have
>forseen this disaster.  We just have to do the best we can at the time.
>
>
>David LeBlanc
>dleblanc@mindspring.com
>
>
>