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Re: [RC] what's the point... - Susan Garlinghouse

Blaming that problem on endurance riding just because that trip
happened to be to an endurance ride is ludicrous!!!  I can't believe
people are actually trying to justify this.

Once more, with feeling, please.  I'm not saying the problem occurred
because it was an endurance ride, and wouldn't have occurred regrdless had
the destination been anywhere else.  I don't care about one-rat studies, I
care about the majority.  Sorry, you cannot convince me that the majority of
metabolic crashes at rides don't occur BECAUSE those horses were at a ride
(or a show, or racetrack, or wherever).  What I'm saying, repeatedly, is
that physiologically, the event starts for the horse as soon as he steps in
the trailer, regardless of where he is going, or how far.  And, IMO, I think
it is a dangerous precedent to allow the majority of riders to think "this
would have happened anyway" when a horse dies or needs metabolic treatment
at a ride.  IMO, it should be the other way around---assume this animal
needed treatment because of something that occurred at that ride, be it
overriding, dehydration, toxin ingestion along the trail, whatever, but also
look for the cause to see if it maybe was a neoplasia, an abcess or the hand
of God.

I realize this approach smacks of Napoleonic law, but I also think the horse
deserves the benefit of the doubt in reviewing what went wrong after the
fact.  There are already too many riders with dead horses assuming that
peeing coffee and falling over dead is just "bad luck" rather than what it
really is.  Speaking only for myself, that's unacceptable.

JMO.

Susan Garlinghouse DVM



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Replies
Re: [RC] what's the point..., Joe Long