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Re: [RC] Protecting Our Horses, Protecting Our Sport - Stagg Newman

Believe the author can cross post and responders can cross post if author has done so. As I understand it, what is not suppose to occur if for a second party to forward something they did not orginate from one list to the other. I intentionally posted on both because ridecamp is an international forum and I wanted to get ideas from everywhere.

Do you have any data on completion rates, treatment rates at rides with a 60 pulse?

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 07:34:22 -0500
 Jerry & Susan Milam <milamj@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This 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





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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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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Replies
RE: [RC] Protecting Our Horses, Protecting Our Sport, Jerry & Susan Milam