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[RC] Endurance - AERC/FEI- glass houses? - frank solano

Steph Teeter wrote :  "There were 10 horse fatalities related to AERC endurance events in 2006. (or perhaps 7 - I'm not postitive on the number). Even at 7 this is more in ONE year than the last TEN years of WEC's. Are we perhaps living in a glass house?"
 
Dear Steph,
 
Yes, I believe we are living in a glass house.  I view the transparency of what we do with our horses as one of the ways we can protect our horses.  So, I view "glass houses" as a good thing.
 
I agree with you that endurance is hard on horses.  It's the nature of using them that 1) makes them stronger and more vital and 2) at some point, causes them serious degradation, either physically or emotionally, or both.
 
I also agree with you that money and research being done by the FEI (as it is presently proposed) is a good and needed thing.  Any R&D done by anybody needs to be shared, for sure.
 
I maintain that (perhaps) for endurance horses, there are things worse than dying due to participation in the sport.
 
Until, as a Sport, regardless of whether we ride (oh, I love these next words so much) "backyard endurance" (AERC) or (my favorite word now) "elite" endurance (FEI), we are able to enforce the humane use of our horses as demonstrated by focusing veterinary measures in the area of HOW MUCH, HOW FAR, HOW OFTEN and HOW FAST, we, AERC or FEI, might remain The Sport Without an Olympic Venue.
 
Interestingly enough, I personally feel that there are probably horses who participate in AERC rides that actually suffer MORE than the horses who participate in FEI rides.  Mile after mile, week after week, twenty-two hour hundred after twenty-two hour hundred, eleven hour fifty after eleven hour fifty, weekly two and a half hour LDs, coupled with the ability to haul great distances to get them miles to garner those points can be Purgatorious for some horses.  But, as of yet, the AERC has not found it necessary to address this issue...other than to actually CREATE awards which reward that kind of tasking. 
 
My opinions in this vein are probably all wrong, but, somehow, I think it's better to err on the side of The Horse in this matter.
Some offer that horses are tougher than we think, but I don't feel that is reason enough to repeatedly teeter on that precipice.  I've actually heard horses say that people are (somtimes) stupider than we think, and, of course, I just walk by those horses that say that and pretend they're not talking about ME.
 
Frank Solano