Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

First, Bette... it's probably a good idea to get them all done. 
Even if you are not breeding Minnesota's state bird on your 
property,   your neighbor most likely is.   Or the highway along 
your property.   For 25 horses an initial and a booster are 
retail about $1250 total here in NM ($25 each) if the vet   
gives them.   If I were you, look out in your herd and find the 
one that is worth the most.   THAT's the one you will lose. 

Then find the ones who are not worth $1250 to save.   I'll 
bet you don't have any.   You can start doing this in waves. 
I don't have $1250 to do 25 horses (but then I don't have 
25 horses either), but I could come up with $200 to do the 
first set.   Just get going, eh?   :)   

per the Tevis trail, if the person and horse named on this 
forum are the correct rider and horse, they both have, or 
had, at ton of experience on the Tevis trail.   BOTH were 
quite familiar with the area.   I'm very sorry for the loss. 

If the horse's heels were clipped from behind (there have 
been conflicting reports), that could have caused the horse 
to go down.   Clipping heels is one of the most dangerous 
aspects of flat track racing.   It's the front horse who will 
most often stumble (although the back horse could also 
be the one that goes down), and often if they both don't
go down due to the clip, the back horse will then stumble 
over the downed horse.   The real affect is both jockeys 
will probably be thrown.   The injuries to both jockey and 
horses are sometimes nil, sometimes fatal, and everything 
inbetween.   It's a very dangerous situation even on a flat 
track (albet at speeds close to 40mph).   

The point is that such events should always be avoided at 
all costs.   Dangerous rider's numbers should be reported 
to ride management for further investigation and possible 
DQ or atleast education for the future.   

It's also quite possible that the horse's heels were not 
clipped by the horse behind.   There was a report that the 
horse behind was a length back... which should be a safe 
distance.   If the horse just tripped on it's own, that's an 
accident.   They happen.   The horse knew the trail, had 
lots of exprience, as did the rider, and I'm positive that if 
we all had it to do over, the actions would have been 
different... the rider would be off leading down, would 
have started behind, would have stayed home, whatever. 

Fortunately, we now have a HWC to investigate and take 
in information so the rest of us can LEARN.   At my first 
ride ever (I was crewing) a pretty little mare stepped off 
the side of a hill that was wide enough for a jeep (steep 
drop off, but nothing like Tevis) and broke her neck.   It 
was very sad, but it was an accident.   She just wasn't 
paying attention and got her back feet off the trail.   I'll
bet to this day her rider wishes they'd been closer to the 
uphill edge, or atleast in the middle of the trail.   This is a
trail / hill I later rode many many times.    At no point did 
I feel unsafe on that same trail.   

Kathy Myers 
in Santa Fe, NM 
ps... when Magnum went into his 4 foot ditch in Dec 1999, 
I was thinking at that exact moment that had I been riding 
him I wouldn't have let him jig so far off the trail through 
that brush.   You couldn't see the footing and didn't know 
what was under there.   Same point, Blue walked right out 
into that dirt tank on Sunday.   I was worried about the mud. 
Had we stumbled into quicksand or something it would have 
been a real wreck.   But he wanted a drink so we tested an 
edge and found the mud doable.   Of course he then walked 
right out into the middle...   :P Fortunately, we were both OK 
and so were all 4 of his easyboots.