RE: [RC] riders set for 120km race - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM
I appreciate that it would be big fun to ride in foreign
countries with foreign riders, though I don’t see being associated with
FEI-level endurance racing as being a requirement for any rider to do that.? I
like talking to pet owners in other countries about their animals, too, but don’t
need to be a paying member of Puppy Mill Breeders and Cat Cooks of the World to
do that, either.
Perhaps I’m being overly cynical or defeatist, but I personally
have little hopes that AERC has a snowball’s chance of influencing where
international endurance racing is going.? Nor as a ride vet do I really believe
that horses can run a 6 ½ hour 100 mile race without either performance-enhancing
drugs, or some degree of permanent renal damage, or both.? I don’t know
the FEI vets or officials involved, and am not making any direct accusations
about anyone.? I would just have to see independently collected and analyzed lab
samples to even start to believe it, and I doubt those exist, or ever will.? We
don’t even have the beginnings of good data on how a ‘normal’
100 mile ride truly affects equine kidneys over a single event, or over several
seasons, or a lifetime, despite evidence that endurance horses do have to
(attempt) to recover from repeated renal insult---yet we want to convince
ourselves that we can push that racing envelope that hard and have any vestige
of confidence that it can be done with the welfare of the horse in mind??
Please.
It’s not my business to decide where other countries fit
into that FEI scenario---I just know I don’t want MY dollars going to
support FEI, given its current directions and ownership.? And I also know that
eventually, its likely that animal rights groups like PETA will catch wind of
this abomination and will make zero distinction between a grass-roots AERC that
nevertheless still supports a branch of the sport that allows and encourages 6 ½
hour 100 mile races and pretends it’s all okay and has the welfare of the
animal anywhere at all in mind.
