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RE: [RC] [AERC-Members] Protecting Our Horses, Protecting Our Sport - Bob MorrisStagg: I agree with the preponderance of your questioning but there is a primary factor missing. Why do these endurance horses die? This, the causative factor, is never revealed to the general membership. Sure there is the statement the horse coliced and went down. The horse was treated but died or was euthanized. BUT WHY DID THE HORSE ENCOUNTER THIS SITUATION! Colic is a generalization mostly mis-understood. The analysis produced by the Vet Committee in reviewing the past fatalities has proven that the horse is dead but WHY the horse is dead is unexplained in almost every case. Was a pre-existing condition a contributing factor? Things like parasite infestations when young? Was a physical condition pre-existing? After all, the horses are seldom given an extensive physical prior to competition. Most every one concentrates on the actual ride as the causative factor when pre-ride conditions may be a strong contributing point. We need to stop being emotional and get positive about investigation and discovery. That is if riders are sincere about the subject. Sorry to say I do not find a preponderance of riders showing anything but token concern in order to not be criticized. This subject needs to completely come out of the closet, mandatory disclosure of all details subsequent to a fatality whether at the ride or soon after, and accurate determination of cause. Cost? No more than a new horse to replace the expired one. Bob Bob Morris Morris Endurance Enterprises Boise, ID -----Original Message----- From: AERCMembersForum-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:AERCMembersForum-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Stagg Newman Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2003 9:42 PM To: AERCMembersForum@xxxxxxxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [AERC-Members] 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. 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