Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> It would certainly be interesting to compare the Vet notes you filled
> out and sent into the AERC with the records Jim Holland got.   I'm sure
> you still have copies of all of that in your records?   It might help
> clear  up the discrepancy.
Kathy, I do not have all those records--they were copious and seemed
rather unnecessary in my last two moves.  I do know that when the
veterinary committee first formed (and I was its first chair), one of the
things that was a priority was to start getting a consistent reporting
form about treatments, pulls and deaths.  I designed prototype forms for
treatment reporting, death reporting, ambient conditions, etc.  None of my
prototypes were adopted at the time, but parts of them were used in the
subsequent forms that did come out.  This was about 2 decades ago.  Since
that time, both the treatment/pull form and the death form became S.O.P.
for vets at rides--I know I filled out reams of treatment/pull sheets and
although I was fortunate not to have many deaths on my watch, I filled out
one and sent it in for each and every one, which in a couple of cases
involved followup phone calls to clinics where horses had been referred to
get details of PMs, etc.  I know other vets did these too--I mentored
several newer vets in my region and helped them get the hang of the
reporting.  I was REALLY shocked to find that there were vets elsewhere
who were NOT sending these in--but even so, the ones that DID get sent in
contained a wealth of knowledge.  I do know that these got looked at by
members of the veterinary committee at some point, as some were shared as
learning cases at the CE meetings that started to be given at AERC
convention--which was another wonderful thing that came out of the
veterinary committee later.

I do know that the times that I called the office "in those days" and
asked for info, it was available--and although I was a ride vet, I was not
on the vet committee at that point, so I don't buy the notion that the
info wasn't available to those who were not committee members.

It IS a sorry thing that this stuff was not archived--but apparently
nobody thought to make it a priority to ask the office staff to do so, and
I have to admit that the thought never occurred to me that it would NOT be
archived.  That said--we DID have some pretty bad upsets in office staff a
few times during that era as well, and it is amazing that ANY records
survived...

> In anycase, the HWC is certainly a good thing and I'm happy to see the
> AERC making great strides in the right direction.   Good job Jim, John,
> Heidi, HWC, vet committee, and everyone else!
I agree that it is a good thing.  What saddens me is that we have a few
individuals who cannot seem to accept the fact that "good things" can come
about as an evolutionary process as our sport matures, but rather have to
make everything a confrontational issue, trying to make out like the
people who went before were "bad guys" for not creating a mature system in
all its splendor from Day 1.  It is the people who worked their fannies
off all those years who laid the groundwork to make it possible for the
system to continue to evolve--including the creation of the HWC.  You're
right--many hands did good jobs for a long time to get us to where we are
now--and the system will hopefully continue to evolve into the future as
well.

(I'll bet that Kerry Ridgway and many subsequent veterinary committee
chairs and members would also be surprised to learn from those
malcontented individuals that they did "nothing" on their watches...)

Heidi



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