Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

It appears some people posting messages on the Horse Welfare Committee are not aware of some of the written material which has already been published on the committee.  

Regarding the mission and specific functions of the committee, I wrote an article entitled "Introduction to the Committee for the Welfare of the Horse" which appeared on pages 7 and 8 of the August issue of Endurance News.  It described the background of the formation of the committee, discussed the workshops and board meeting at the convention in Chattanooga, provided brief biographies of the committee members and reviewed the committee's mission and projected activities.  The article stated, in part:

    "The Committee has reviewed the outline of committee purposes from the Chattanooga convention and is further refining it for a report to be submitted along with the Committee membership nominations to the AERC Board for its  next telephone conference meeting. The proposed mission for the Welfare Committee, i.e.the general reason for its existence, is to foster peer pressure and a culture of protection of horses through non-coercive means. The proposed purposes of the Committee, i.e. what functions it should serve, are: 

    Act as a sounding Board for informal complaints by members about horse abuse and contact overzealous riders to warn and educate them of potential problems.
    Provide non-coercive review of horse fatalities and other incidences.
    Provide an alternate resource than the Vet Committee for processing horse fatality information.
    Provide policy recommendations to the Board on horse welfare issues.
    Promote education and research based on horse welfare.
    Gather and disseminate information about horse management practices which enhance the welfare of endurance horses."

This statement of mission and purposes was approved by the AERC Board of Directors in its telephone conference meeting of July 29, 2003.  The minutes of that meeting were published in EN's September issue.  The full HWC report to the Board for that meeting will be published with other committee reports appearing in the October issue of EN. 

The statement of mission and purposes was first developed by the way as part of a Power Point presentation I prepared after I presided over the regional awards ceremony on Friday night at the convention and before the second horse fatalities workshop I conducted at 7am the next morning.  It outlined the ideas presented by the participants at the first horse fatalities workshop I conducted Friday morning.  We refined them at the Saturday morning workshop.  I was very impressed by the attendance and participation of AERC members at the workshops, including Howard Bramhall, Laura Hayes, Jim Holland, Mike Jaffe and many board members among others.  The minutes of the board meeting from the convention included a description of my motion to create the new committee.  These minutes, including a recitation of a preliminary statement of the mission and purposes of the HWC, were published on page 51 of the June issue of EN.

Obviously, a review of the mission and purposes shows that the HWC has several functions.  With respect to education, reviewing and processing horse fatality information, and disseminating information on horse management practices, the committee published its first in a series of case studies on endurance ride horse fatalities in the September issue of EN at pages 10 and 11.  Laura Hayes prepared at least half a dozen drafts of this for committee review and had to put up with hundreds of comments from other committee members.  I think she did a great job and am disappointed that no one has made any positive comments about the case study on the endurance email lists.  Preparing these case studies takes a lot of work both to dig up hard to get information and to edit it into something useful.  They present a broader perspective and more information than is contained in the medical investigations of the Vet Committee, so I think they are well worth it.

With respect to other committee functions, the HWC report to the board on July 27 which will appear in the Oct EN lists proposed policy recommendations the HWC is considering.  The committee will narrow these down for a presentation I will make to the board at its midyear meeting on Saturday, October 11, 2003 at the site of the NC ride outside of Reno.  These policy recommendations will deal with modifications to AERC rules and other practices for the purpose of reducing horse deaths.  Once they are presented to the board at its midyear meeting, these policy recommendations will be published in EN for the purpose of encouraging comment and feedback by AERC members.  This will also provide time for the HWC proposals to be reviewed by other relevant AERC committees.  The plan is for the board to vote to either approve or disapprove any proposed rules changes and other recommendations by the HWC at the board meeting at the convention in February 2004.  This is part of an ongoing process; the HWC will consider and submit further policy recommendations as long as the committee exists.

My last email announcing an informal complaint procedure for the HWC gave out email addresses for each committee member and phone numbers for some of them.  Both my work and home phone numbers are widely available in EN, the AERC website and elsewhere.  The informal complaint procedure, by the way, is designed to supplement not replace or conflict with the horse death investigations by the VC or the handling of formal protests by the P&G Committee over rules violations.  The HWC's role will be to contact and counsel people before deaths occur and when the basis for a formal protest may not be present.

I also submitted a lengthy email discussion of the status of the HWC and horse death reporting issues on ridecamp June 14, 2003 in two parts.  It can be found in the ridecamp archives.  I also submitted a couple of emails on horse death reporting to the AERC members forum list subsequently. I hope people take the opportunity to review the written materials discussed above and in these emails.  I know it takes a lot of time for many of us to compose emails.  If some of the material we are asking for is already out there, it is worth looking at it first.

I am also preparing an email to explain the differences between the roles of the Vet Committee, the Protest & Grievance Committee, the Education Committee and the Horse Welfare Committee and what you might expect from each.  I hope to prepare this either tonight after the HWC conference call meeting or sometime tomorrow.

John Parke