In a message dated 2/24/2005 7:24:38 A.M. Mountain Standard
Time, Bruce Weary writes:
Maybe
Jim should don his black arm band, march down to his local county
coroner's office and demand to see all recent coroner's reports and
death certificates. After studying them, he could proceed to
browbeat each dead individual's doctor for not having taken better care
of the deceased.
From my take, I believe (as an organization) we need to be accountable for
the lives of our horses. Not as an abrogation of rider responsibility, but
as a governing body, concerned with any death linked to, directly or
indirectly, the participation in the sport of endurance.
Any death, whether due to a preexisting condition, overriding, or
just bad luck needs to be taken into account and records kept, whether for the
perusal of membership or AERC committees. The ability to cite a "cause of
death" is (as John Bass talked about) the thing.
If that is being done, fine...but "access" to that information should be
available.
I believe most deaths cannot be attributed to "overriding" or "rider zeal
and insensitivity"...but,
I believe Jim just wants the information made available.
That he is passionate about it is how expresses his concerns...so
what.
The number of members on this list who feel "passionate" about this or that
is myriad...again, probably not a bad thing.
When we take to flippancy and dismissal of opinions as a standard way of
doing things, this forum kind of loses his some of its value.
I believe Laura Hayes is the right person, in the right place, at the right
time to make this happen.
