 |
[RC] People and Horse Welfare Disagreement - Don HustonWell Bruce,First, the sarcasm. I'm so glad you and Bob have addressed this sensitive problem of our common human weaknesses (is it pride?). I too think increasing awareness and eliminating the stigma associated with post-ride treatment is a worthy and attainable goal. It seems to me that the best way to eliminate those "judgmental stares" at the rider whose horse is undergoing re-hydration therapy would be for all of us to install IV bag hooks on our trailers and get those fluids up and flowing because we all agree that our horses are dehydrated after 50 or a 100 miles. The side benefit to those of us who have failed to ride hard enough to need IV fluids would be that we could still hang the bag and tape the IV tube (without a needle) to the horse's neck and thereby escape the stigma of "not caring enough to provide post ride re-hydration therapy". What a beautiful sight, IV bags by the hundreds shinning in the moonlight and everybody feeling really good. PRE-hydration therapy anyone? X;{ Second, the disagreement. Seriously now Bruce, if you are implying that "post-ride treatment stigma" puts horses at risk you have got it backwards. Riders put their horses at risk and they do it with or without any stigma coming into play. I say keep it simple, keep the riders totally responsible for all things pertaining to their horses, keep any and all pressures in place that might make a rider reconsider pushing beyond their horse's abilities. If a rider is not smart enough to read their horse and slow down before trouble starts then they have earned whatever stigma and emotional turmoil they feel. It's up to the rider to use that turmoil and vow to come back better prepared. The tragic part is that the horse suffers physically no matter what and for that I would like to see penalties applied to the offending rider (I know, another cold day in hell). IMO feel good is only allowed when you earn it by finishing with a sound horse. Allowing riders to feel good about treatment promotes race-brain and high pull rates with Fort Howes 2006-2007 as a prime example. By remaining silent the AERC has approved riding a horse as fast as possible until the horse either finishes or gets pulled and as long as the horse gets treatment nobody will say a word and that was exactly what happened after possibly 2 dead horses, many treatments and very low completion rates in 2006 there was complete silence from AERC. There was no stigma applied after the 2006 race, everybody felt just fine, no feelings were hurt, no penalties applied and sure enough the 2007 riders performed just as poorly, no horses died (highly skilled and lucky vets?) but the completion rate was still a pitiful 55%. Third, a question. Does the AERC plan to institute some kind of performance qualifications for riders who enter AERC-FEI races so they don't get in over their heads trying to compete against the Crandalls and Knavys and blowing out their horses? (read protecting an unseasoned horse from the riders ego or "protecting the welfare of the horse") Thanks, Don Huston At 11:31 AM 6/19/2007 Tuesday, Dr. Q wrote: Hi Bob-- Don Huston at cox dot net SanDiego, Calif =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|