Vet Criteria (was Barney/Valerie)

[guest@endurance.net]

K S SWIGART   katswig@earthlink.net

Lynn Kinsky said:

> I think it will be great if endurance is an Olympic sport, but the vet
> criteria should be looked at and tightened so horses can get pulled
before
> they turn into a PR horror show.

Just out of curiousity, in what way, exactly, do you think that
vet criteria should be "tightened" so that "horses can get
pulled" before they run into sufficient physical difficulties
that it will look bad on TV?

I am not interested in some "the vets need to do something to
about this" answer.  What I am looking for is specific detailed
changes to the veterinary criteria.

If what we are doing now is allowing endurance horses to be
turned into a "PR horror show" and you think that changing the
vet criteria will keep this from happening, which vet criteria
would you like to change and in EXACTLY which way?

I, personally, think that this attitude about the vets and the
veterinary criteria is totally wrong-headed in the application
to endurance (and detrimental to the well being of horses, I
might add).

I do not think that the vets are at an endurance ride to judge
the condition of the horses and keep overzealous riders (and
horses, I might add, since riders cannot do it without
connivance from the horse) from running horses into the ground.

It would be far better for the horses, the riders, the vets, and
the associated PR if the attitude, instead, were that the vets
are not the judges to keep competitors from exceeding the
veterinary criteria, but rather that the ride vets are part of
the team that assists in getting the horse through the day
(whether that means through the entire course or not) and to
give their professional advice to riders.  While EVERYBODY
understands that it is more important for the horse to get
through the day than it is to get the horse through the course.

And the way to do this is not by "tightening" the vet criteria,
but rather by educating the riders, the vets, AND the horses, so
that all the participants (the riders, the vets, and the horses)
will listen to each other evaluating the SCADS of very subtle
information in order to determine the condition of the horse and
its fitness to continue.

It is not tight veterinary criteria that will best help horses,
it is educated and communicative participants.

kat
Orange County, Calif.