I love the idea of seeing the vet before you go
out. By then, if the gut sounds are low after eating and drinking, that is
something to ponder before going back out. Also, if your horse needs a few more
minutes to recover, you'll get that without re-entering the PR area. You end up
waiting anyway, so you might as well get some food and water first. If my camp
is before the vet hold, I stop and let my horse eat and drink and if I have
time, take off my tack. It does work much better for the horse and you can
better scores. Of course on the flip side, front runners could get pretty ugly
if they don't get out in time.
I do agree that the rider has full responsibility
for their horse. However, we are a team and the team consists of the
horse, rider, vet, ride manager and even crew. It is my responsibility to train,
feed, condition and ride my horse intelligently. When I come into a vet
hold and tell the vet everything I can about how our ride is so far and how I
think my horse is doing, then it is his or her turn to evaluate. I count on, yes
even RELY on that expertise, which I don't have, to help
me make decisions about the ride. The vet does have a responsibility at that
time to use that expertise to the best of his or her knowledge.
I also rely on the RM to have competent vets, so
that if my horse does get into trouble, we are in good hands. If you travel to
many different states, you can't possibly know all the vets. I would hope that
they have the sense to keep the loops at least under 20 miles if
possible, and to work with the vets on the hold times. They know the
terrain, need to take into consideration the weather and be able to determine,
with the vets what will be the safest for all. They also are obligated to make
sure the rules are followed. So they have their own responsibilities. I
know I can count on my trainer Wendy to watch for signs of lameness or lethargy
because our crew sometimes knows our horses as well or better than we do.
So maybe the problem is that we want one person to
be held accountable for a terrible accident when in fact, we could all be
liable, and rightly so. If we hold more than one person accountable, maybe more
than one person will come up with better ideas. We are a team. We ALL have a
responsibility to the horse, the owner more than others, but if we all
take credit for the good rides, then we all are accountable for
the bad rides. If "WE just don't know enough" as one
person quoted a vet as saying, then certainly ONE person can't
know it all.
I can't fathom what happened at WEG. How a horse
dropped dead after leaving a vet hold is certainly a mystery to me. A heart
attack would be something that couldn't be predicted I guess, or an aneurysm. I
am not sure it is fair to hold that rider accountable 100% because they leased
the horse. Where was the owner's accountability? The rider was given the go
ahead to leave the vet hold. I don't know what the details were but I think
more than one person was responsible.
Education is the key, yes, but we need information.
Information on horse deaths needs to be forthcoming in order for us to learn.
Not who is to blame, but how did it happen. Were these unpredictable deaths,
such as a heart attack, or was something missed? This information needs to come
from AERC.
We have to own up to our responsibilities to
our horses both as owners and as a team when it is time to compete. And, what we
do IS competition. Even AERC has an obligation to the members to inform and
educate on such matters. If all the information is sent to a central location
and then not shared with the members, how will we ever know anything??
No one has ever learned anything without making a
mistake.
Lisa Salas, The ODd Farm
John said he NEVER made a mistake until he met me.
He said getting that first horse was the biggist mistake he ever made. But now
we have six! Did he learn anything?? I think not. He's so
funny!
