I was riding in a ride several years ago. There was a woman there who was
very excited about enurance riding. Call her Rider X. This was her first
ride. It was also her horse's first ride. She was bound and determined to
win. There also a very good experienced horse there with a good and
experienced rider. Call him Rider Y. I was also there, call me Truman.
Rider Y went out first with rider X and Truman following closely. It was a
very humid South Flordia day in the 70's and later the 80's. At about 10
miles I backed off the pace since the humidity was getting worse - not
better. Rider X chased rider Y into the first vet check at 14 miles.
Rider X was told to slow her horse down. It took her about 5 minutes
longer to come down than Rider Y. So Rider X took off when his hold was
up. When Rider X was ready to go she took off trying to catch Rider Y and
she did.
Rider Y, who is also a vet tried to get her to slow down and he slowed down
since this woman was hell bent on keeping up. They slowed enough that
Rider X's horse was able to recover but it took her 10 minutes longer.
Rider Y was concerned that Rider X would try to chase him down again so he
waited for her. The next loop was 17 miles and that just too much of Rider
X's horse. Rider X came in and her horse collasped and the vets started to
work on him.
Rider X was so upset that she had to pull that she handed the horse to
someone else and walked off! When I came in a few minutes later at the
third vet check, the horse was in big trouble. They could not get him up
and were pumping flud in him on the ground. One vet stayed to midnight
untill the horse was stable. Two weeks later the horse died. For a
slightly different perspective on this incident read the article on
electrolytes that appeared in the AERC about 6 months ago.
This was a backyard ride with token prizes. What was driving Rider X was
not money but ego. Rider Y tried to get her to slow down, but she accused
him of trying to talk her into slowing down so he could win. IMO the worse
emany of our horses is rider ego not nice prizes and not even money prizes.
She killed her horse because she had to win the ride. She didn'd kill it
for a trailer. She didn't kill it for $5,000. She killed her horse
becuase of her ego. I have seen more horses injured because of the lust to
win than I have because of big prizes.
Truman
Truman Prevatt
Sarasota, FL