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[RC] thinking out loud -All of this talk has got me thinking. I have not received my EN so I have not read the protest nor was I at the ride so I don't presume to have an opinion on that particular situation. I have remembered the few instances that I have witnessed a horse death at or after an endurance ride. Both of these happened more than 15 years ago. The first happened to a very good friend of mine. In fact She was my sponsor for many miles. She was doing a 50 on her appy stud who had many miles as did she. She had ridden all day long and then almost at the finish line the horse drops dead. I wonder if someone might have blamed the rider and filed a protest if it had happened more recently. The only way we found out what happened was that her husband secretly had an autopsy done because she was so torn up about it. She was convinced that it was her fault. the actually found out that he had cancer literally all over his body. They said that horse should have been dead long before that. The only reason that survived that long is because she had kept him in shape for competition. If her husband hadn't had the autopsy done we never would have known. I now am competing on one of his granddaughters. The other happened, ironically, at the same ride a few years later. Another friend was doing the 50 and had completed the ride and the all of a sudden the horse crashed. They had him hooked up to everything they could. Couldn't find any apparent reason for it. They decided to take the horse home the next day since he was stabilized enough to travel (we were out in the boonies and they lived in a big city) back home to see their vet. Next day the horse was dead. The only thing the rider could remember was that at the ride he had let the horse drink at a creek and all of a sudden the horse jerked his head up out of the water, and sure enough when the vet checked there were two small puncture wounds under his jaw. Figured it was probably a moccasin. To some observer (who just saw what happened at the ride) it might have seemed that these riders mistreated their horses. It just goes to show that you don't always know everything that is contributing to the problem. Katrina _______________________________________________ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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