One more thing about the “Trotting
out 10 times”. Please know that the riders don’t trot out
their horses 10 times to convince somebody whether or not the horse is
sound. My guess is that the professional vets at the rides were doing a
lameness test by observation not to only determine lameness, but WHERE the
lameness may occur, to advise proper treatment, etc.
Pin-pointing the origination of lameness
can be VERY difficult, and a million things could cause it.
Catfish
-----Original Message----- From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Debbie Buick Sent:Monday,
December 15, 20037:31 PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] What makes you do
this?
What is it that drives a person to
do a 50 or 100 mile ride on an animal they say they love? Do they think
the horse enjoys it? I volunteered at a ride this weekend, and believe
me, none of the horses appeared to enjoy it! And half the riders didn't
appear to enjoy it either??? What makes you want to put your beloved
animal through that, is it your ego? I've ridden a 25 miler in 4 hours,
and I think that wasn't bad, but question whether my horse or I would have
enjoyed any more. And I didn't really enjoy horses coming in with a high
heart rate, and the owners rushing to get through the P/R people and vet
line, to get back out there and abuse their horse some more. You love
your horse? Sounds more like an ego trip to me. I was impressed
with the calm people who took the time to take care of their mounts, went
slower, and came in with a 46 heart rate. And to those who's horses tied
up, how can you even put your horse through that if you love it? And the
lame horses, why trot that horse 10 times, the first time showed he was dead
lame, 9 more times isn't going to help. Did you want to get back on and
keep going, were you hoping he was just sort of "off" for the first
trot out? I really got my eyes opened volunteering, I'll say that.
And what makes a big fat person,
with boobs or belly flopping for 50 miles, enjoy that??? Why do you
expect your horse to be an athlete when you couldn't run 100 yards
yourself? Why don't you go and train to run a marathon, maybe with a 50
pound pack on your back, and see how long it would take you to get fit, and how
much you would enjoy it? Shouldn't people expecting their horse to
be an athlete, searching far and wide for the perfect horse that can go
the distance........don't you owe it to your horse to be somewhat fit
yourself??? Get out there and run a couple miles a day and get yourself
fit, and give your horse a break. If your horse was too fat you'd sure
put him on a regiment in a hurry. I'm not trying to be mean, just to give
you another perspective from a spectator, and what the animal rights people
might see also. The older I get the more I am on the side of the
horse. I don't like 2 year olds racing, or 3 for that matter. I
don't like the high level eventing and how tough it is on the horses. And
I don't like the jumping over fences and walls a horse can't even see over top
of. I think some of our so called "horse sports" are getting a
little out of hand, and the welfare of the horse is not a priority, or they
wouldn't keep making the courses tougher and tougher. Some are just down
right dangerous!
Send all flames to Howard, I think
he's used to it.
