Just though to weigh in here on a couple of things -
first of all, after 30 years with horses, we have seen horses lost for varied reasons, some here (not many, thank God) and some elsewhere. Mares die in foaling, horses drop from aneurisms, many, MANY die of colic. When our stallion - now 18 - was almost 15, he acquired a case of endocarditis - a bacterial infection of the aeortic valve. He was not expected to SURVIVE. We don't know to this day why he acquired it, except the one possibility that the pigeons attracted by the neighbors' chickens(who regularly fouled - no pun intended - our property with their fly-bys and drop=ins, since we fed earlier in the AM) deposited a bacterial load in his feed. But this game stallion tolerated weeks of chemo-level antibiotics, sufefring multiple injections daily, some days up to 6 injections! He was drenched, medicated, confined - and I wondered when the day would come that he would have run out of patience and at the very LEAST not allow me to catch him - possibly even give me a bit of a nip. He never did - he was the perrfect gentleman - and he has survived to compete again, even if "only" in LD. Bottom line is that, for allw e did and were able to do because of technology, he SHOULD have died - and as the vets =- all of them told us - "he could drop dead standing in his STALL, so you may as well ride him". That is TRUE of any horse pretty much. We need to understand that hroses, like people, no matter the care and technology, die every day. That does nto excuse AT ALL poor management or malicious competing of these creatures. But it does lend a forgiving understanding to the fact that we cannot ever prevent all deaths as undue - it happens. As I Watch my now 28 year old mare declining visibly, I know that we are pretty well past keeping ehr fit to go - but factually in pain management to a small degree. Her quality of life is good, but I know she will very soon come to the day when I have a decision to make. Nature often times takes the decision out of our hands, in competition and outside of it. Understanding what is simply a demand and dictate of nature and what is the reuslt of a fool's workmanship is indicative of both horsemastership as well as general wisdom and maturity.
Finally, when one sees a horse being overridden or otherwise abused, one must be willing to speak up - and loudly, and most times in spite of the arrogant and ignorant who protest snottily that it is "their horse and they will do what they please" and anyway who are YOU to tel them what to do? Sadly it is the obligation of each of us who know better to dictate to those who DEMONSTRATE that they DON'T how NOT to treat an animal. Thank God for vets who do so! And to teh woman who crossed the finish line at a ride in 2002 and threw the reins to the ground and sat her substantial derriere in a chair whilst her horse dripped sweat and heaved (my daughte cried as she cared for that horse that day), you and others like you should take up another hobby.Sad, that even a quality visual aid doesn't serve to educate and enlighten them - a sweaty, distraught, heaving horse.
Bottom line is that, while horse DO die with no apparent warning at times, it does nto excuse malicious neglect or overriding.
s
