Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Boy this is an interesting conversation and Kat has honed in on the 
basic issue. While I somewhat agree that there there are times when 
incidents are "acts of God" - they are few and far between.  A good 
example of one is we have a reptile call a Gopher Tortoise ( 
http://www.wildflorida.org/critters/gopher_tortoise.asp) that roam the 
sand hills of FL. They dig big burrows sometimes 20 feet long about 6 
feet under ground.

One time I was at a CTR on a well established horse trail. Horses had 
gone in front of me. We are cantering along and all of a sudden my horse 
was on her side. I was sliding face first and face forward in the sand. 
I separated my shoulder. A Gopher burrow had collapsed under us. There 
was no sign above ground of the borrow below ground. It was on a sand 
road where forest service vehicles ran over. She hit hard on her hip and 
was lame at the stop. Did I make a mistake or could I have made a 
decision that would have kept my horse from being lame - yes I could it 
was staying home.

On the other hand one normally finds "the rock" when one is going too 
fast through the rocks. Injuries normally happen - as Angie points out - 
when one is taking some risk. Take enough risk you will have an injury. 
If we ride long enough we will have an injury to our horse and ourselves.

However, I think Kat's point is well taken (you might want to document 
this since it may never happen again ;-) ) - we are responsible for the 
welfare of our horses.  That doesn't mean that we should keep them in 
padded cells - it means we should  minimize the risk we are asking them 
to take and if there is an injury accept the fact that in the final 
analysis it wasn't the rock our horse found - but the rock that was on a 
rocky trail we chose to ride faster than maybe we should. Any 
horse/rider team is made up of an animal with a small brain and an 
animal with a big brain and the big brained animal is responsible for 
the care the small brained animal.

When we ask a horse to take a risk, we must also accept the 
responsibility if the horse is injured because of that risk. At some 
point it is the avoidance of the responsibility  that is the issue. I 
have come up with a stone bruise and my horse was off. It wasn't because 
there was a "rock with my horse's name on it that just jumped in front 
of him and got him." The rock was sitting in the trail. It had probably 
been there for years and will be there for years to come. I made the 
decision to ride faster than I should have and the rock got him. The 
decision was mine as was the responsibility for the injury.

My horse ended up at UF vet hospital on Saturday morning at about 2 AM 
because he coliced after the ride.  I think I finished last that day. 
There were probably a lot of reasons all which I went through and 
analyzed. But the bottom line is I did not catch something. In hindsight 
he was telling me something might be wrong and I wasn't aware enough to 
catch it. It was very subtle but no matter how subtle it was my 
responsibility to catch it - I didn't.  Fortunately with 40 liters of 
fluids and and a warm stall for 12 hours and he was fine. That, however, 
doesn't absolve me of the responsibility that I almost killed my horse.

I think what Kat is saying is we the big brain animals have the 
responsibility for the small brain animals we are asking to do this 
sport for our enjoyment and/or egos. While an injury might happen - it 
is very seldom "bad luck" it more likely is bad judgment on the part of 
the rider. We can only learn from experience if we accept it as our 
mistakes and poor judgment - we can not learn from if we slough it off 
as "bad luck."  Horses do not chose to do it on their own we chose for 
them to do endurance for our enjoyment. We in turn have the 
responsibility to care from them and hold their welfare as paramount.  
While there are some, there are very few "acts of God" that cause them 
harm.

That goes no matter if you are riding slow LD or the FEI level. In the 
final analysis the responsibility for the horse is in the hands of the 
rider - it is not the Chief d'Equipe. It is not the team vet. It is the 
rider. If the rider will not accept that responsibility he should not be 
there.

Truman
> I don't really believe in luck, but I do believe in "the odds". 
> During training rides I am very careful about footing, always walking 
> where it's risky, etc...but in a ride you have to gamble if you want 
> to finish within time. I know when I'm gambling and that sooner or 
> later the odds will get me...but there's risks I have to take on ride 
> day to finish. The faster you want to finish, the more you have to 
> gamble on some of those things.
>
> I didn't finish one 100 because my horse tripped in the dark and 
> flipped on me. I was  hurt bad enough that I didn't want to ride any 
> more and he was cut on the coronary band just enough that I could 
> convince myself I was stopping for his sake. >g<  As far as mistakes 
> made...well, I did choose to ride in the dark...but I chose what I 
> considered a good course and had a fit horse, so I tried to stack the 
> odds in my favor. Not sure it's best to choose a horse that travels 
> long and low if you plan to ride after dark on uneven footing and  
> don't like flipping, but there were probably trade outs where 
> choosing him over other horses was good in other ways. I played the 
> odds.
>
> I can't imagine accomplishing many miles in this sport without taking 
> some risks. You just have to do your best to keep those risks at an 
> acceptable level and go from there. If a horse becoming lame in 
> competition is the ultimate mistake, then leaving him at home in his 
> paddock should be the ultimate good decision. I think there's trade 
> outs there. I believe that *over all* my horse is better off 
> physically for having done endurance just like my kids are better off 
> for playing sports...even if it does mean they're going to get some 
> bruises and sprains.
>
> Angie
>
>
>   


--

"Life is about obstacles. Endeavors in life are not to be overlooked. 
Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to 
what happens. Not by what life brings us, but the attitude we bring to 
life." Wade Boggs, on his induction to the baseball hall of fame. 


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