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Re: [RC] Pull Codes - k s swigartFrom: <heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> It is up to the vets to examine the horses at the time of the pull and query the riders. ... I like your suggestion of W when there is nothing wrong with the horse. But I do think that RO-M and RO-L are valid, and can be used in a valid manner if vets do their jobs and follow up with the riders who opt not to go on. RO-M and RO-L are almost totally invalid, since they are nothing more than a guess at what might be wrong with a horse that a rider opts not to continue with. As a consequence, the next time I pull my horse from a ride (after the horse has been cleared by the officials to go on), if the vet quizzes me on why I am choosing not to go on I will say, "Because I don't feel like it." I am not going to aid and abet them into pidgeon-holing my reasons into categories that are clearly inadequate. And, BTW, you are probably wrong about the RO-M for my horse that wasn't having fun. I THINK that she was that way because she had pulled her suspensory. After that ride, she had some thickening in her fetlock that kind of came and went for the months following (although she was never lame on it) including doing over 300 miles of competition with several top ten finishes with 10 out of 10 for soundness on her BC evaluations. When the thickening finally bugged me enough to do an ultrasound on it (3 days and one trailer ride after her top ten finish with the 10 of 10 on the soundness evaluation), we discovered a 3 inch lesion on her suspensory (my vet said that "most horses with one tenth this damage are three legged lame.") It may be that with this horse, the way she says, "I hurt my foot." is to say, "You know, I am not having very much fun right now." Even so, all this is pure speculation. She may have pulled her suspensory in one of the subsequent rides or in her paddock and the pulled suspensory had nothing to do with it; she may have been on the verge of some metabolic crash that was averted and self-resolved because I chose not to go on; she may have been (like many women) in a bad mood for a few hours; or maybe she was just bored. All of this is moot. I did not pull her from the ride because she was lame or because I suspected she might be lame (so RO-L is not the reason I withdrew), and I did not pull her from the ride because I thought there was something metabolically wrong with her (so RO-M is not the reason), and I didn't pull her from the ride because there was something wrong with me (so RO is not the reason); I pulled her from the ride because she wasn't having fun, and for me, riding a horse that isn't having fun is against the rules. And for me, riding a horse that isn't having fun isn't against the rules because I think it means that there is something metabolically wrong with the horse. For me, riding a horse that isn't having fun isn't any fun (and even if it were, continuing to have fun on a horse that isn't having fun is having fun at the expense of the horse, so even if some people consider this fun, it is immoral). I got in to endurance in the first place because I had a horse that didn't think dressage and show jumping were fun (I originally bought him to event on him), despite the fact that he was a talented dressage horse (I could get him to do 2 tempi changes, we were working on ones before he died....as long as we were out on the trail), and I could get him to jump fences, logs, streams, gates and anything else that was in his way (as long as it was out on the trail, if it was in arena and he could go around, he would rather go around). He wanted to be a trail horse. After a while, he got so that the trails had to be interesting for him to have fun...so...no more Death Valley Ride for him. He didn't find 50 miles from Badwater to Furnace Creek un-fun because he was lame or metabolically compromised, he found 50 miles from Badwater to Furnace Creek un-fun because it is the most boring trail on the planet (except for 150 miles along the Mexican Border at the old Renegade ride); although, I could keep his interest up if I tucked him in behind a mare in season. :). Riders should be allowed to withdraw from the competition without having to give a reason. And if pressed for a reason, they are completely justified in making something up. :) Because, the way it stands now, people are making things up anyway...witness Heidi's willingness to make something up for my horse that wasn't having fun. :) As I said in my first post. If the reason for not asking the horse to go on were obvious (ie. the horse were lame or metabolically compromised), then the vets would have pulled the horse. It is only where the reasons are not obvious that riders opt to withdraw their horses anyway, and if the reason is not obvious, then any categorization of it is going to be nothing more than SWAG. The AERC should not be putting wild-ass guesses in their official records. kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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