have been reading recently a few stories of rides where horses have been
grossly overridden and of riders who ignore their horse in their
eagerness to "win", and i was wondering what disciplinary actions the
various bodies in other countries take aginst these riders?
in australia every horse has a log book, where it's vet check information,
times etc are recorded. you cannot compete without one, and the details
of a horse's previous rides are therefore available to the vet and ride
committee at each ride. i don't think other countries operate like this,
am i right?
by having a track record for each horse, vets who see a horse in bad
condition can look back and see how they've fared in previous rides, and
read previous vets comments. if it looks like the horse is being
regularly overridden the vet or later the AERA (australian endurance riders
ass.) can impose restrictions on the horse and/or rider. these include an
enforced rest period (ie not allowed to enter any rides for x months), a
downgrading to "novice" status (which means they have to ride slower than
a set time or pace rider) etc. this information is recorded in the
horse's log book so the next ride committee is aware of it when the horse
enters another ride, not after the ride when they send the results in.
the AERA also sends out warning letters to riders who have a recent
record of many vet outs, or who vet out very strongly (esp. for very
elevated heart rates etc), and can impose restrictions on the riders, or
even ban them from riding.
anyway, i was just wondering how other countries monitor and control this
sort of thing, and what measures they use to protect the horses from the
sometimes overzealous riders.
nik
u913558@student.canberra.edu.au