In a message dated 9/17/2007 3:17:22 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
bwalker2@xxxxxxx writes:
I'm
probably going to regret jumping into this issue, but I
disagree. Horses can get sick, colic, or get hurt at any
time. Sometimes, in retrospect, you can say: yes, I
missed something - it was there, but I missed it at the time.
In those cases, hopefully you learn something and don't repeat the
error. However, sometimes there really wasn't any indication
that there was a problem. I don't see the sense in
saying "you should have caught it, seen it, or been clairvoyant"
when there were no indications that anything was wrong.
I
don't think that, if I am at a ride and see a horse hooked up to
IVs, I have any business assuming that the rider did something
wrong, or overrode the horse, or deliberately ignored a problem when
I have absolutely no information about the situation. The
determination of whether the rider was in error should be between
the rider, the vet and ride management.
I tend to agree. Sometimes an issue pops up at a ride that was well under
way before every putting a horse in the trailer. Our now 22 year old stallion
had a bout of endocarditis years ago and the entire southern half of the state
it seemed like sent their vets to hear our boy's "profound" murmur. Shoulda had
pizza and beer I guess because we were the hot spot for a while. As our guy
progressed through weeks of chemo level antibiotics, the general consensus was
that he could "drop dead standing in his stall" so we may as well ride him.
So....as we extended every stage of his LONG recovery, we knew that Sal would be
miserable just standing around, and would rather probably BE dead than be a barn
ornament. So we took the vets' advice to heart and started riding him - as
gentle as he is, even after so long a time he was terrific, kind patient
and just glad to be out. So....not tow years later he was legged back up and did
a 25 miler. Then another...and another (gives you a good perspective on the
relativity of LD and "real" endurance, doesn't it!). Now, at 22 years young :),
he is readying to do 30 at Bear Valley. We are being very careful, prepared to
pull him at the starting line if we have to,. But he IS 22. So...if he completes
and needs help ( just wasn't quite there), how would I feel about someone
sneering at him - or us? Probably want to smack them. MOST people do their
homework and care very much for their horses. Some people are ignorant and need
help. Others just plain don't care. Better be sure who one is dealing with
before popping off I think. Should we be taking our guy in a ride(not
race)? Sure, We have been fitting him for about 4 months now and he is
going well with 22 resting pulse and about a 1 minute recovery. Could
something go wrong? Yes. Will we be grateful for 21 1/2 glorious years with a
stallion who went doing what he loved so much? Would we question our own
judgment? Probably - no one has to do that for us. But let me tell you this -
horse med is an INEXACT SCIENCE and so something can go terribly wrong ANY TIME
you take horse over a hunt course or a 50 mile course or into a show ring.
In the end, that "treatment" everyone seems to deplore can at times be
a last ditch effort to help a horse who for sometimes unknown reasons got into
trouble - let's perhaps HELP instead of sneer. There.
San(who might be the one needing intervention after Friday!)
