Re: RC: Will our team win with one of our best out of the picture?

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

Rachel, while the situation with the VEE vaccination is unfortunate, I think 
there is an awful lot of emoting and misinformation in your post.  YES, I 
agree that the team vet and chef d'equip (not USET) SHOULD HAVE had the 
regulations in hand about VEE vaccinations prior to horses even completing 
the nominating process.  For Karen to have gotten this far and not had such a 
vital piece of information is a horrid mistake.  Beyond that, where do you 
figure that our horses/riders pay their own way to the Worlds?  Yes, they 
have expenses getting to the point where they are chosen, but USET funds the 
lion's share of their expenses going to off-continent competitions.  And 
deserving as Karen is, how do you figure that the loss of one of our squad at 
this point would severely cripple our chances?  We have SO much depth in this 
sport it almost makes one's head spin--virtually every one of our alternate 
list would have been a worthy choice to be on the squad in the first place, 
and any of them will likely represent us very well.  I do hope that a waiver 
might be made (considering that it would appear fairly easy to document that 
Karen's horse indeed has been vaccinated, rather than having a titre due to 
disease), and perhaps titres done now might be able to establish that the 
horse is no threat to the European population.  We can certainly hope that 
something will be worked out, but if not, chalk it up to learning from our 
mistakes, and let's get behind our squad, whether it consists of all six 
original choices or has an alternate or two in place.

Heidi