Re: RC: Learning Lessons (was Death in Ridecamp and Syria)

[Tivers@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/10/00 3:40:09 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
guest@endurance.net writes:

<< In the Syria story, what is “known” is that the horse suffered a 
 fracture to the humerus  while walking down the trail.  Everything else 
 (as far as I can tell from how it was reported) is pure speculation.  
 But the first lesson that was expressed (by Katee) was “the horse 
 should have had more LSD???”  Until we were told the horse “had more 
 solid miles in her than you can imagine in your wildest dreams.” Even 
 if the SWAG of “We guess that she incurred a "green stick" fracture in 
 the earlier incident, then later the complete fracture occurred,” is 
 accurate, there still isn’t enough information provided to determine 
 what not to do next time.
 
 Don’t hand riders bottle of water?
 Don’t ride on if the horse appears sound?
 Don’t ride on if the horse passes the vet check “easily?”
 Do full x-rays at every vet check?
 Don’t make a water stop and then proceed at a slow pace?
 
 Hell, maybe it was all those “solid miles” that weakened the leg, maybe 
 the horse had a congenital defect. We were provided with nothing about 
 the training protocol of the horse, the previous ride history, how the 
 horse was fed both during the race and for her entire life.  There just 
 isn’t enough information to determine what the circumstances were that 
 we now need to avoid. >>


There was enough information for me--guess you had to have been there. The 
lesson was simple in the extreme--"watch where you are going". I told you 
what I saw, and what I concluded--your extrapolations are your own, and 
misinformed. You're attempting to make a large mystery out of a relatively 
simple event. 

Once you've incurred a fracture, you may or may not see signs of it prior to 
complete breakdown. (That was lesson # 2) There are 6 steps to take when 
injury occurs: Accurate diagnosis, immediate treatment, determine the cause, 
eliminate the cause, rehabilitate, refit. If you skip etiology (cause), 
you're doomed to repeat the same circumstances again and again. This happens 
in the racehorse industry a lot--particularly because a whole art of passing 
the blame has developed and misinformation rules. This leads to confusion and 
causes are either ignored or watered down with  enough extrapolated 
possibilities that corrective action is impossible.   

In this case, the etiology was clear--after the fact of the full fracture. 
And in this case there was no opportunity to intervene between cause and 
effect. At any rate, the two lessons of the incident, for me, are precisely 
as described above. Am I clear? Do you have further questions? 

ti