Ridecamp: RE: [RC] Pull codes--and attitudes

Terre:

Your dues are almost paid in full. I will send your
membership card as soon as the last punch mark is made on
your record card. Keep it up.

Bob

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of terre
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 11:39 AM
To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [RC] Pull codes--and attitudes


	First off, I have no objection to the pull codes being
reported but not
published.  The downside to this is that it deprives other
riders of some
information about the conditions of a ride they may be
planning on
attending, and the rider may never know how their pull was
recorded; but
basically, I don't care whether the reasons for pulls are
made public or not.
	It is more important that the reason for the pulls be
accurately
reported.  We are trying to amass statistics on WHY horses
'fail'; given a
body of data we can begin to dig deeper in an attempt to
analyse it.  This
has led to some discussion of 'bad' data; and pulls recorded
wrongly, or
the severity of the problem not addressed (ie Grade I vs
Grade 3 lame).

	1) "bad" data--First of all, we are hearing incidents of
'erroneous' pull
codes (like the rider who was injured, but her horse was
given an L).  You
must realize that while this happens, for every incident of
this kind there
are 100 that are recorded accurately.  So the degree to
which this kind of
this will skew the data is questionable.  The plan is for
pulls to be
'followed up'--this will allow the rider opportunity to
correct the bad
info ("no, the horse wasn't lame, I was!  He didn't need
treatment, I did!")
	2)"gradation of problem"--ie grade of lameness, etc.  IMO,
it is a BIG
error to focus on grade of lameness as having ANY
significance.  A horse
can be G3 lame with a stone bruise, or G4 lame with an
abscess and be in no
danger whatsoever.  It can be less than Grade I lame with a
suspensory or
tendon injury and staring in the face of a career ending
injury (or even
life-ending, but that really IS RO).  If my horse is sound,
but the vet
detects heat/swelling in the suspensory, you can bet I'm
gonna pull--and I
have no problem with calling it L, and I don't care who
knows it!  Which
brings me to:
	3)attitude.  People are getting way too bent out of shape
over this
issue.  Maryanne is right--we are taking ourselves too
seriously!  Guess
what--mostly, nobody else cares why you pulled!  I will
agree it would
irritating to see an L or M after your name if the pull was
for some other
reason; but other than the problem with skewing the
statistics as above,
why do you really care so much?  A 'blot' on your horses'
record?  I've
tried discussing this with my horse, and gotten pretty much
the same glassy
stare I get when I try to explain why he should jog the
first few miles of
a ride--as far as I can tell, he doesn't much care.  You
complete or you
don't; you learn from your errors; you come back and try
again.  Other
peoples' opinions (if they even have one) have little or no
impact on your
life!
	Ah, but wait--you say these codes may affect the horse's
price if you want
to sell it?  OK, now we're talking about something else.  If
your horse has
been lame, or had a metabolic problem, and you don't want it
reported
because it will lower his resale value---well, how does that
differ from,
say, selling a tranquilized horse as quiet?  The horse did
what he did.  If
a seller wants to cover up some aspects of his career,
well--that's another
ball game, isn't it?  The horse started the ride.  If he
failed to complete
for any reason other than true RO (rider unable or unwilling
to continue
for non-horse related reason), then any attempt to report it
at as
otherwise amounts to setting the odometer back.

Terre (seem to be copping a few attitudes of my own these
days!)


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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

 If you are an AERC member - PLEASE VOTE in the Director at Large 
 and By Laws Elections.

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