The information in the table is oriented toward the LENGTH of the ride,
the EXPERIENCE of the horse/rider, etc. In looking for a common denominator,
it seems that what was not addressed was the ride itself.
I was disappointed that the table did not contain data on how many vet
checks there were in each ride where a fatality occurred, how far apart
they were, hold times, pulse criteria, whether the ride was flat or "technical",
and if CRI's were used by the Vet staff. This info is readily available
on any vet card from the ride. How about another table with the first
two columns from the existing table and ride data infomation in the other
columns?
After
reading the article - thanks for the heads up that it was there Laura,
I note that 3 of the deaths fall into the "stuff happens" catagory.
Lost in the forest, a fall and eating blister beetles could happen anywhere
at anytime. So, we really have 8 deaths to deal with as "Endurance
related".2
were new or newish riders on new horses - the education outreach should
help here and it will be interesting to see if this statistic declines
in following years
the 3 100 mile horses that died were all ridden by riders with experience
and there is no discernible connecting thread. It seems that we would
be well served to fund research that addresses stress in competing horses
to see if we can identify factors that would lead us to pull at risk animals
before they deteriorate. The colic cases are all over the map and
it will take several years of collecting this kind of data to see if there
is any set of circumstances that identifies higher risk factors.A
thought regarding the heat stroke horse might be to advise that temperature
be added to the vet check parameters when the temperature or heat index
exceeds some threshold.The
Paso death is questionable as a "ride death" unless there are more circumstances
to tie the high pulse at the ride to the subsequent tie up and laminitis.Laura,
congratulations to the committee on putting together the statistics and
publishing them. Fact rather than rumor is the first requirement
for forward progress.
