Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Well, here is a perfect example of what can happen when a person's opinion is taken as fact.  Will some of you on Ridecamp that attended the PAC please post publicly to dispel some of these posts or confirm them. This is not good for our sport!  I received several private e mails agreeing that the post quoted below was not correct.  Now the "big guns" are riding their horses to metabolic failure & death.  These "big guns" are some of the most respected riders in this sport and ALL of them had to qualify for this event and they did not do that by riding their horses to metabolic failure.  Since no one else will come up with numbers I will.  There are 14 metabolic pulls listed (if I counted correctly)....for the PAC.  I don't know how many of the 14 had to receive "treatment" I wasn't there.  I do know that FEI events seem to have higher standards/criteria then AERC rides so it may be easier to be pulled for metabolics and that does not mean the horse is close to death. We also do not know how many of the horses were going slow/conservative and were pulled for metabolic reasons at the PAC.  Speed is NOT always the reason horses crash!  Please stop painting all competitive riders with the same brush.  Some riders that have horses attached to IV lines may deserve your criticism but most do not.  

Kim Fuess




I feel that many of the horses were over ridden at the PAC.  The terrain
> was difficult, the elevations were high, the temperatures were extreme.  As
> a result, I saw approximately half of the horses pulled because of lameness
> or metabolic failures.  In my opinion, many, many horses were in extreme
> danger of death due to metabolic failure.  The vets and assistants treated
> and kept the IV's running on several horses all night long, with no break,
> virtually saving several horses' lives.  I can only state, after being
> there, that the vets showed utmost responsibility, professionalism, respect
> and extreme care to the horses that were treated by them.  At no point did
> I ever see anything but total integrity in handling of the horses by vets
> and staff.

I'm going to say it. This whole discussion and this post in particular are
extremely disturbing to me.  Especially as a person who has only been doing
endurance rides for over a year. You all spend so much time telling us new
guys to go slow, all about the welfare of the horse, but when it comes down
to the big guns at the big rides (races, quite obviously) they ride the
horses to the point of lameness, metabolic failure and death. We saw this at
the WEC, past PAC's, this one, Pam-ams, etc.

Shouldn't the most experienced riders show their concern about the welfare
of the horse too? Is the top echelon of our sport exempt from "To finish is
to win"? Has it only become to win is to win?