Ridecamp: Re: Re[2]: [RC] Pre-Ride VC Issues and a few others

I'd like to illustrate another aspect of not allowing a horse to start
a ride due to a marginal gait problem with a personal story of my last
Old Dominion ride, over ten years ago.

At that point in his endurance career, Kahlil sometimes was a little
off at the pre-ride check.  When that happened, he would warm up out
of it by the first vet check and remain sound throughout the ride.

At that O.D. ride,  I knew he was off when I took him for his pre-ride
exam, so I told the vets about it before they looked at him.  They
told me he was too lame to start.  So I trotted him around some in
hand and asked for a recheck.  They still said he was too lame to
start, and said that 25 miles to the first 100 mile vet check was too
far to take a chance.  I volunteered to stop at the 50-milers check at
12 miles, but no dice.

So I saddled up and rode up the mountain a couple of miles and back,
and asked for another recheck.  They had a conference.  The decision
was that "Yes, he's improved, but this is a tough 100 miles and he's
only going to get worse over that."  He was not allowed to start.

That was the last time I went to the Old Dominion ride.

Three weeks later I traveled 1500 miles to the Race of Champions.
Kahlil was in exactly the same condition.  He started, was fully sound
by the first vet check, and continued and finished sound.

The way I saw it, the O.D. was 700 miles from my home, and it takes
several days off from work and a lot of expense to get there.  If they
would not work with a rider whose horse had a marginal lameness,
especially with a history of showing it "cold" but warming out of it,
I was not going to go through that effort and expense again only to
risk not starting again.  If I had been allowed to start and he'd been
lame at the first vet check, I'd have pulled without any hard feelings
and come back again to a ride I'd loved for years.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@xxxxxxx
http://www.rnbw.com


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