Comments on: Post Mortem Results in on Red Hills Horse Trials Deaths

By: meredith

meredith — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:26:12 +0000

That is soo sad that those horses lost there lives!!

By: Taylor

Taylor — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:52:25 +0000

I think it is very unfourtunate that these two great athletic horses had to pass away from the pulmonary hemorrhage. I give my sympathy to the owners and riders of these great horses.

By: Sasha

Sasha — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:43:11 +0000

Oh, please, Martin. Don’t be ridiculous. Yes, horses love to compete, but how many horses VOLUNTARILY work themselves to death? Passion does NOT eliminate the need to be fully conditioned–a human athlete may love to run, but that does not in any way, shape or form allow them to go run a marathon in record time without being fully prepared to do so. And clearly, most horses don’t condition themselves, so the blame (although that word may be a bit extreme) falls squarely on the riders and the event planners.
I agree with Gesa, as I did in the previous article. Maybe “Both incidents were handled as well as possible” but veterinary care is to mop up the mess, so to speak: 1oz of prevention is worth 1lb of cure, right? In this case, assuming the horses were in peak physical condition, perhaps the courses were just too tough! Is it really worth having two horses die of the same “rare” condition just to see which rider can push their horse the hardest (which often drives the horses into the ground)?

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:31:59 +0000

I read that one horse had an “accident” but from this report it would be reasonable to believe that the accident occured when the primary cause of death occurred – pulmonary hemorage. Pulmonary hemorage is not caused by accident. It’s a weakness in the condition of the horse. It may have been exacerbated by over exertion but it could just as easily have happened in the home arena. It’s silly to blame the event or to jump to the extreme of suggesting that the horses are being exploited. These horses are athletes and *LOVE to perform.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:14:45 +0000

its very sad. i dont like those trials, to many horses and people get hurt for what? money? stupid

By: cc

cc — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:11:10 +0000

poor things 🙁

By: Abby

Abby — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:25:01 +0000

What Gesa said..it’s soo true!

By: Gesa

Gesa — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:58:59 +0000

If the descriptions of a course are available before an event and accidents happen anyway, because riders overestimate what they and their horses are capable of (although that doesn’t seem to have been the case here), perhaps more rigid requirements need to b eset up to force teams to qualify properly for any top eventing competition!