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Re: [RC] Awards, the horse's perspective - Becky Rohwer >I've read this several times and, I must admit, ended up feeling
incredibly sad during the >second or third reading.
It is incredibly sad to read the story. But the fact still remains
that putting a mandate on how many rides you can do in a period of time or
how many top tens you can have in period of time is not going to eliminate
the possibility of a rider finding that their horse is in trouble. I so far
have been fortunate in that the 3 pulls I've had with my current horse have
all been minor lameness problems. The last two have been in the last two
years in a row on my very last scheduled ride of the season at the final vet
check. Consequently for the past two late fall and winter seasons I've
stayed off my horse. I have started the last two seasons very carefully
always conscience of the lameness that ended my riding the previous year. I
can not tell you why she turned up lame. It could have been pushing a
little, it could have just been a bad step. We never really know why these
things happen sometimes, they just do.
When a horse and rider team put many miles in the saddle together
they do become your best friend. It is heart breaking to discover that your
friend that has carried you through some areas that you would never even
attempt to go on foot is hurting or even dying. All we really can do is
watch, listen, try to notice what might be going wrong before it comes to a
critical point. But sometimes it is just too late. Sometimes these
wonderful animals give and give with out complaint until they just have no
more to give.
At a ride recently a rider came in from a loop at a canter I was told
and his horse just layed down at the vet check. He just dropped and didn't
want to get up. Vets were concerned, other riders were concerned, crew
members were concerned, rider didn't seem to be very concerned. After
treatment he just kind of blew it off thinking there really wasn't much
wrong with the horse. These are the people that need to be watched out for.
But in his mind everything was going well on the trail. Like Frank said, is
a very wobbly post we stand on.
Becky R. - Montana
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