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Re: [RC] [RC] horses with higher pulses-stephanie caldwell - terry banister"'cause if I'm giong to be out there I want to be at the top. So, that gives me some time to see howthings work and learn hands on about endurance before I go try to be competitive." So, HELLO everyone. The above quote is 1/2 of our answer! We need to call a spade a spade. We need to start with reality and acknowledge and ADMIT that Endurance IS a "competative sport". Endurance IS a RACE, not just a ride. Call them "rides" and then giving prizes and awards for winning, is not healthy. Tevis started endurance rides. But it was only a very few rides after the first one that people who had "been there done that" wanted something more. So "First Place", "Top Ten" and "BC" recognition and prizes were instituted. Take those prizes and recognitions away, and imagine what would happen to the sport of endurance as well as International Competition. Those people who enter a 50-miler and call it a "Ride," and have no plans of trying to win or top 10 are no different that trainers that enter their horse in a flat-track race for reasons other than winning every time. It's still a RACE (look it up in the dictionary). The second half of our problem with horses crashing is that even when we acknowledge that we are in a race, we all prepare and ride to the best of our ability and knowledge. No rider wants to see their horse in trouble. Even the "ego" racers who supposedly don't care about their horse, do not want vet bills and bad publicity, so they would fix the problem immediately, if they knew when and how. The issue is that we do not have a RED LINE on our instrument panels, and riders and pit crew (vets) do not YET have definitive tests to determine the chemical "red line" for an individual horse. So until we do, we have to continue racing in a fog. We know why some horses crash when others continue happily onward: The horse that crashed tipped over the line chemically (and you know how many variables can come into that formula) at some point, and there was not an immediate warning beeper. He may have continued moving and looking the same, and only gradually and later did the fact become obvious. We can say it is rider responsibility to prevent horses crashing, but it is quite obvious that when it happens, the riders are saying they DON'T KNOW why the horse crashed or what to do about it (or they would have prevented it). I loved the blood test that Dr. Mark did at the Hog Wild ride this year. It showed my horse, and several others, early on had high potassium and low sodium levels. If we want to refine the sport and prevent horse treatments/deaths, we need to focus ($$$) on the continued research for the fixes for these imbalances (diet, e-lytes, medications), and monitoring systems (chemical and mechanical). In the meantime, I believe we are in touch with reality if we admit that racing has its appeal precisely because of the factor of the unknown, and horse racing does require living "vehicles." So we can pick our "position" accordingly. Terry "May the Horse be with you" _________________________________________________________________ Share your photos without swamping your Inbox. Get Hotmail Extra Storage today! http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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