THE WIN - EGO BUTTON
The 22nd Annual Sunland Endurance Ride Was this last weekend and I'm happy to
say that it was a very successful ride....Barely.
I volunteer on this ride because it's my home turf and I feel it's my way of
giving back to the sport. I worked Top Ten P & R's so I ran around beating
the front runners to the next vet check. On the 3rd vet check it started
getting hot and Dr. Connally raised the hold time to 20 min., so the horses
would be able to cool off and eat. While we were waiting, a horse came
running in to camp without it's rider. We stopped the horse and took him to
the water. Dr. Connally and the others immediately notice this horse is
going to be in trouble. Within 5 min. he was on the ground with everyone at
the check point trying to help the horse back on his feet, get an IV in him,
tube him, and start pumping fluids in this poor guy. I don't know how many
times he got down or fell down, but everyone worked on getting him back up
with words of encouragement, TT Touch, and lots of incredible veterinary
care. This horse came so close to death I know the vets thought he was a
goner. This horse fought the hardest race of his life and he won, after 2
hours of pumping over 60 lbs of fluids, 2 vets working on him, lots of
volunteers assisting. He finally stabilized, but it still took another hour
before he could trailer and even then he laid down in the trailer. Back at
camp they stabilized him further and then sent him to Somis where they
operated on him for a kink in his intestines.
Why did he come in alone? Well, he kicked his rider who was tailing up a
hill and took off (or so the story goes). Thank goodness he made the right
turn and found the vet check or it would have been a tragic ending for this
horse.
Why did this happen at all? I have discussed this with a lot of people in
ride management and in my opinion, it comes down to rider error.
How could a rider let this happen? "The Win - Ego Button." I've crewed, Vet
secretaried, P & R'd, and ridden on a few rides now. The only way I can see
this happening is because the rider has The Win - Ego
Button in the ON position. This rider was told by the vet at the lunch break
to SLOW DOWN that he didn't want her close to the top ten. The rider as far
as I know never informed the vet that the horse was rolling at the lunch
break. The horse has a lot of consecutive rides in the last few months.
In this ride, when the horse ran off, they were in the 3rd or 4 position from
the top. Is that listening to the vet, the horse, or the conditions ( it was
very hot)? I have seen riders with this Win - Ego Button
ON before. They are rude to the Vet check helpers, they're rude to their own
crew and sometimes they don't even see their horses they just see the WIN.
Some people make comments like (and I heard this one) "that they are an
aggressive rider." After seeing this horse wanting to die from the pain, his
teeth clenched, his gums turning purple, and on his way out with everyone
fighting for him to maintain his will to live, I don't understand this Win -
Ego BS.
With all of this going on, another rider walks into the vet check and a P&R
person goes up to him and he says "I don't need a P&R I'm pulling here, he's
just not right today and we don't need to push it." This guy was Lynn Abrams
and I've seen him riding this horse to top tens and best conditions for a
number of years now. His horse would have passed all the vetting perameters
but he is a rider who listens to his horse. The WIN doesn't get in the way he
knew that his horse was having a bad day and he listened. Lynn deserves to be
congratulated for his judgment.
I hope this account will come to mind to all of us while we're out there
pushing our horses that we don't forget to listen to them.
Margie Beeson