The dilemma

["John & Sue Greenall" <greenall@vermontel.net>]

I would like to comment of the dilemma ride vets often find 
themselves in.  No one likes to treat horses, least of all the vets.  
As they watch horse after horse pass by them in a vet check (most 
of which are in quite a hurry) they must make a decision that could 
or could not effect the rest of the day and they have to do that in 3 
minutes or less.  No easy task and it is natural that mistakes are 
made.  If you really want to experience how vets agonize over their 
"pool of knowledge", ride with one.  They have come to be 
expected to KNOW what is going on with their horse.  The truth is 
that most of it is an educated guess using whatever tools they can. 
 As Heidi pointed out, an educated eye can be more effective than 
textbook knowledge.  This can be seen at CTR's where a lay judge 
can spot a horse on the verge of trouble faster than an 
inexperienced vet.  This can be frustrating for riders who get pulled 
by a vet who simply goes by the numbers.  On the flip side, it is 
equally frustrating for the vets when a horse crashes after it has 
passed by the numbers.  So, we all know that no one person and 
no one set of criteria can tell what will happen next with a horse.  
What we want to know is, " is there such a thing?"  Hence the use 
of on-board thermometers, on-site blood work and glucose 
monitoring.  Gone are the days of touchy-feeling, here is the age of 
technology and boy is it confusing. 
Somewhere in a riders learning curve there comes a realization that 
everything that they are doing might not be everything they could 
do.  Kudos to all of you that are participating in this discussion for 
you are raising the awareness level of many.  However, there 
remains the dilemma of what is REALLY going on with our horses 
and to that end I hope we continue to search.
John and Sue Greenall
mailto:greenall@vermontel.net
http://www.vermontel.com/~greenall


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