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Re: [RC] MY Mistake - Truman PrevattBoy 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. -- "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. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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