>Her death raises a question that I
would like each of you to think about when you're passing judgment on other
riders.
>What if my beloved mare had
collapsed during a ride? Would you have then labelled me a
killer?
No, Brenda, not at all. Your
mare's death is the sort of thing that illustrates why the death rate at rides
will never be zero. I've been around a handful of horse deaths on rides,
both as a ride vet and as a rider. There is a world of difference between
the "ticking time bomb" that you describe (and that is very apt), and the rider
who rides their horse into the ground and then turns his/her back and callously
walks away.
I had one lady lose a horse at a ride
with an aneurysm. She rode very much like you describe your own
career--hadn't done a lot of rides, but had brought her mare along slowly and
conservatively. The morning her horse died, she left camp last, and
laughingly commented to me as she went out how she had finally gotten the mare
over her pre-ride jitters--the mare was eager and had her ears up, but was
heading out at a fast, flat-footed walk. The mare collapsed only a few
miles into the first loop. All one can do is hug the rider and sit down
and weep with them, in such cases.
Of all the horse deaths I've
personally seen, only two were caused by uncaring riders who blatantly overrode
and abused their horses. One of those I now know enough to
prevent--that rider taught me to recognize her type coming. And
perhaps I've prevented some since, given what I learned from her about having to
get tough with the abusers. She's the one that took advantage of
a trusting vet and rode her marginal horse into the ground on the last
loop. I was the vet at the end who had to deal with the horse that was
literally dead on his feet. Neither that vet nor I will ever make the
mistake of letting out a marginal horse again, no matter how much pleading and
begging the rider does, or how trustworthy we think the rider is. (That
was in 1983.) The other one I don't know how anyone could have
prevented--the young man pulled himself, but was afraid to come back into camp
because he was riding his dad's horse, and he was afraid of what his dad would
say about him having pulled. He rode offcourse, and spent an entire day
evading search and rescue personnel that were looking for him. He finally
shattered his horse's leg on the top of a rocky mountainside where the
horse could not be evacuated in the condition he was in. One of the ride
vets had to make the tortuous journey up there in a jeep and euthanize
him. I hope the door didn't hit either one of these riders on the
backsides on their way out--neither one has been back to an AERC event, and I
can't say I'll miss them.
But the aneurysms, the freak
fractures, the ruptured hidden abscesses, the abdominal tumors--no, one cannot
label riders of horses that succumb from such things as "horse killers."
And I'm sure sorry about your mare--having also lost one of my best mares to an
aneurysm at home in the pasture, I know how devastating it can
be.
