Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

In a message dated 8/23/2003 9:13:08 AM Pacific Daylight Time, heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:


> No, the SUBJECT is not old and tiresome.  What is old and tiresome is the fact that the SAME emotionality is surfacing A YEAR LATER without any suggestion of what YOU personally would do if you find yourself in this same circumstance again.


First of all it hasn't been a year. I didn't even find out the horse died until 2 months after the ride. Secondly, I haven't said much about it at all since the protest was being filed and I didn't want to until the results were final...which was this month.

And what did I do? Nothing? You don't know that. At my first ride (July 2002) I saw the same horse and was concerned then. There was a thread on crashing horses on ridecamp at the time and I emailed several experts on this list voicing my concern. After not getting much response I figured endurance horses just must look that tired and worn out after a ride so I shut up.

In the interim the same rider attempted to buy a horse from me and I turned her down...gut feeling something wasn't right...but again I second guessed myself.

Then, coincidentally I was camped next to her at the next ride. The horse looked like he had lost condition, and I told her so. I told her I had been concerned about him, but she assured me he was fine.  As for not saying anything about her going to a hotel...I had already left and didn't know it happened.

After I heard that he died (several months later) I emailed John Park to ask about filing a protest, but was told Lynne had already done so. I did give a witness statement, however.

Now...you tell me what more you would have done. 

I am not going to stop being angry about horses dying, and I'm not going to shut up about it. If you don't like reading my posts feel free to delete. I realize bad things happen to good people and good horses, but this protest was not about one of those people.

Melanie