Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

Re: [RC] horse fatalities, 2002 - Heidi Smith


I'm going to jump into the fray here, because I happen to disagree - I
think
the statement by the veterinary committee is acceptable.

Let's look at the statement again:
 "No specific management or veterinary circumstances have been identified
that may have prevented
this fatality."

Why is this unnacceptable? Obviously 'something' caused these deaths -
dehydration, freak accident, dangerous section of trail, spooked horse in
camp... The veterinary committee is not trying to say that there was no
cause for the deaths. Only that they did not identify any SPECIFIC things
that management and veterinarians did or did not do that might have
contributed to the accidents: i.e. there is no obvious blame to be placed,
and no grounds for disciplinary action against ride management and
veterinarians.

Thank you, Steph.  I've started replies to this three or four times today,
but have deleted them as I couldn't think of a diplomatic way to say what
you just said.  It appears that while the causes of death are known here,
there was no specific human error that could be identified.  That is not the
same thing as saying that there WASN'T an error (or more likely several
small ones in some cases)--only that it could not be conclusively
identified.  This is not a CYA statement--it simply says, "We looked and we
couldn't see anything that we feel could have conclusively prevented this
death, if it had been done or hadn't been done."  I don't know why people
try to read so much into simple statements--the vet committee is as
concerned about horse deaths as anyone (if not moreso), but they also have
the burden of approaching the subject in a logical and scientific manner,
and don't have the luxury of spouting off a bunch of "maybes."  This is not
some big political coverup, as some folks seem to want to make it.  <sigh>

Heidi


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


Replies
RE: [RC] horse fatalities, 2002, Steph Teeter