 |
Re: [RC] the sport? - Joe LongOn Thu, 23 Oct 2003 08:51:47 -0400, Truman Prevatt <tprevatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Our sport doesn't have all that a great reputation to start with. Many other people in the horse world see us as a bunch of yahoos running the snot out of our horses. I've heard it more than once. I think we may have gone a long way to overcome that last year at the horse fair, but all that I suspect would be undone if the fatalities were known. There are some who see us that way. There are some who believe the very act of riding a horse 50 miles is cruel, no matter what the circumstances, and they won't hear anything different. I do not believe that is the widespread view, though. When I tell people about endurance who have not heard of it, or heard much about it, I stress with pride the care that we take of our horses and the protections the rides give the horses. So we can pat ourselves on the back all we want, As we should. we can talk about all the progress on horse welfare Which we've made. but horses still die at numbers higher than in the past. I'm not convinced that is true. With such small numbers a few years' worth isn't meaningful even if they are up, it takes a long time to know if there is really a trend. They could double from one year to the next, or be less than half as many as the previous year, neither would mean *anything* regarding the efficacy of horse care and protection. I know we had a decline after gate-into-hold replaced flat holds, pulse criterias dropped, and we adopted "Fit to Continue." A decline over a decade and more. How many total have there been in the last ten years compared to the previous ten years? Doesn't matter if it's reporting, doesn't matter what the case it is fact - they are still dead. You can try to rationalize it all you want, you can talk about all the vet checks and "our horses see a vet more in a day than most in a year", etc. but it is still fact that there are dead horses as a result of an endurance ride and it is a fact by which we will be judged by those folks outside the sport - many who think we push our horses too hard to start with. If endurance gets a reputation for being a "horse-killer" sport, it is more likely to come from excessive arm-waving and finger-pointing by people within the sport, not from outside, IMO. I really think a few people are a tad obsessed about this. We DO have a problem with equine fatalaties at the International-level rides, both due to their high numbers relative to number of competitors, and the high visibility of those events. IMO we need to look more at how to improve that situtation rather than tar endurance riding overall as "the worst thing you can do with a horse." -- Joe Long jlong@xxxxxxxx http://www.rnbw.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|