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RE: [RC] Protecting Our Horses, Protecting Our Sport - Jerry & Susan MilamThis topic is being cross posted to AERC Forum and RC which I thought was a no-no, but anyway........I really like what Stagg is saying here and what Maryben said in AERC Members forum: lowering the finish pulse has worked very well at the past two MW rides I've attended, but even 60 allows for a lot of fast times in the top 10 horses. Our horse deaths seem primarily associated with metabolic problems the horse has during the ride that may be contributed to with pre-ride routines. This where our major concerns and research need to be directed. Susan G has done so much to help horses already, maybe AERC can vote to fund her research that would give us answers to these questions and more? Questions I have of my our routine: 1-How do I know I should electrolyte my horse before the ride? or after each loop? or every hour on the trail? or even the night before the ride? 2-If I do electrolyte how much and mixed with what do I dose? I am going to try a no electrolyte dose pre-ride this race. I never dose during training ride but always add elytes to the feed mash afterwards. I'll offer the same at the hold as I do on training rides and see if he drinks better this time. I know the elyes pre ride upset his tummy even with maalox added. Right now all I can do is trial and error in trying to keep him safe. We need more solid research. Susan -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Stagg Newman Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2003 10:42 PM To: AERCMembersForum@xxxxxxxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Protecting Our Horses, Protecting Our Sport Question: How can we better protect our horse. Response Desired: Good ideas as part of a brainstorming session. Recent incidents together with facts that I was until recently unaware of convince me that we need to be far more proactive in protecting our horses and sport. Facts that disturb me are that: -The horses deaths this year may exceed the number last year -- and last year was regarded as an anomolous high year -Over 15% of the horses at the recent Pan Ams had to be treated with IVs and one horse died (this is consistent with performances at other similar competitions in past year and in my opinion is unacceptable). -According to a recent post on ride camp, 6 out of the top 10 life-time mileage riders in our sport have lost horses to ride-related deaths. (I have not verified this fact nor done the statistical analysis of expectations but even if this is close to the truth, it is disturbing to me.) My hypothesis is to protect our horses, we need to: 1. Better understand what is putting our horses at risk and what are early indicators of problems (please see my column in EN Sept 2003 entitled "We Just Don't Know") 2. Better educate riders, who have the primary responsibility for the welfare of the horse as well as ride managers and ride vets and what can be done to prevent problems 3. Develop better procedures to govern our sport. ??Unfortunately there will be people in the sport who are unobservant, uncaring, or ignorant. And even caring, eduated riders may make judgment mistakes in the heat of competition or when tired late in a ride. I believe that to take action on the ideas above is the right thing to do. Moreover in today's society if we do not take appropriate action, then others less favorable to the sport may force action upon us. So the hard job is deciding what actions are appropriate and will serve the goals of protecting the horse and protecting the sport of endurance riding. I believe we should start by an electronic brainstorming session where we get as many ideas out on the table as possible without being judgmental. We then can do the critical analysis. I will be happy to catalog the ideas presented. For each of these items we need to consider the "what "and the "how". For example on education we need to decide what we need to teach people and then what the best way to reach people with the information. Note that I have assumed we do have a problem that we need to address. The folks that I have talked to agree. If there are others who do not agree, then whether there is a problem to be addressed or not probably also deserves discussion. Stagg Newman =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. 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