Let's begin then, shall we?
So, by now, if you're in the endurance community, you are fully and completely aware of the events which occurred at the Shanghai Trails endurance ride on the night of March 24th. And if you aren't, I will preface this post by saying that a catastrophic event occurred which resulted in 3 equine deaths and multiple injuries to other horses.
I had arrived late that day, being not fully committed to going to this ride. The weather looked iffy, but at around 10am I finally decided that if it hadn't rained at that point, then I was going to the ride. So I loaded up at home, ran to get ice and a few last minute groceries and headed out to the barn. Got the horses loaded and then hit the road.
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| Ebony and Ivory side by side in my RedDraggin!!! |
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| My boy Strider loaded up like a CHAMP!! |
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| Sometimes that nose begs for a good kissie!! Love my Dakini girl!! |
I fought a headwind all the way there. My truck, even loaded with my gear and two horses, usually averages about 11mpg. This time, we averaged about 8.5mpg on the way down. Frustrating.
Anyway, I get to ride camp and pull off the direction I'm pointed, until my friend waves me over and points to where she's camped and I finally manage to wiggle my rig over next to her. Get the horses out and get their electric pen set up and get them tossed in.
The rest of the day was normal. My friends graciously offered to feed me (oh man, burgers at ride camp and a shared meal and wine is DELICIOUS, FYI!). I vetted in, no problems. Ride meeting was normal. Everything was normal, normal, normal.
I went to a friends trailer to talk to her after I'd noticed lightening. I'd tossed a rain sheet on Strider for the night to keep him dry as I knew that rain would be coming.
Around 10pm as I'm in my trailer getting it set up for the night and thinking about settling in for the evening, maybe reading, I hear my horses whirling around in their pen, so I pop my head out my trailer door and see 1 horse on the road run by as I loose the cry "Loose horse..." and I trail off as I see more go flying by and my cry changes to "Loose horses!" as I scamper to my pen to keep my two calm as this herd of 6 goes charging by my pen on their first "fly by" loop. Mine make loops, but they stay contained. I hollar to my neighbor about her horse and she hollars at her friends about their 3 horses. The herd is looping out by the barn we use for vet checks and PR area and I can see them looping back around, so I go to the front of my pen in order to keep them from trampling down my pen and freeing my two. They come near to running me over (the next morning the hoof prints were right there by my pen...it was scary to see how close they got), but swerved at the last moment to avoid taking down my fence.
I race to my trailer to grab two lead ropes and run into my pen, clip them on both horses and hang on as the herd makes a 3rd fly by our pen, hoping and praying that my two remain with me.
The herd goes by again and goes off into the field by the barn.
I'm talking to my neighbor when we hear it. I can close my eyes and still hear the *BANG!* that I now know is the horse known as Joe running into Devan Horn's car. I looked at my neighbor, both of our eyes wide as saucers as our stomachs drop. "That horse didn't make it," we both say. We look in that direction and can see, by the light of a trailer, one horse running away, a bucket trailing from it's rear leg that it finally manages to kick loose.
We see the herd bolt through camp at that point, and that's the last I saw of them all.
My neighbor and I are talking with her friends, and I said at the time whose horses I felt it was. Turns out I was 100% right.
The rain begins to start. Slow at first, then turns into a torrent. We stand around, looking at one another, unsure what to do. We're scared to leave our horses for fear that the herd will come back. My neighbor's friends have tossed their 3 horses into their trailer. I briefly consider it, except I have a full bale of hay and alfalfa tossed in the manger of mine and Strider would kill himself eating it all.
One of my friends comes towards our trailer from the barn, shaking. She had taken the horse Joe to the vets and gave us a run down of how he looked. We were all so shaken. She was very shaken. The rain was hard and fast. I went into my trailer, prepped it for sleeping, changed into dry clothes then went to visit my friend who had taken Joe to the vet's to just see how she was doing and to see if she knew anything new.
We talked for a while. She decided NOT to ride on Saturday. She was shaken. Scared. Those of us who were awake and aware were all scared all night long I think.
I eventually went back to my trailer, but slept fitfully. Anytime a four wheeler went by, I jerked awake. Some brave riders went out on horseback to hunt for horses, and anytime I would hear hooves on the roads, I jerked awake.
It was a long night. An awful night.
The final tally was this; 3 dead horses. 1 who was tied to a trailer that, from my understanding, a loose horse ran into him, he jerked back and broke his neck. 1 who fell into a ditch and broke her back. Another with a broken shoulder/leg that was put down at the Wharton Vet Hospital. Joe will survive this; but he lost an eye. Nevermind the horses with multiple lacerations and wounds. The one who had to have his shoulder stitched shut.
I tell this only to have it out there. I have already written of my first hand account to the AERC Board of Directors along with what I hope will be the ultimate outcome of this entire fiasco. I have received responses from 5 or 6 BoD members. I saw the new president posted to the AERC page with, what I hope, is a hint of what will come and what will happen to this member.
My thoughts are with the man who did right and lost a horse. My thoughts are with the horses who are recovering from this ordeal, and those who won't ever run again.
The entire endurance community; in fact, the entire equine community who is aware of these events, is now looking at their containment systems and wondering how to improve them and make them better and safer. I myself may be utilizing my coil ties with more frequency and encircling my entire rig with hot tape. I will certainly be buying glow sticks to braid into manes. Small solar lights to put around my fencing option.
I am now also seriously considering buying HiTies for the RedDraggin' and using them at night while utilizing my electric fence during the day.
There ARE changings coming to containment at AERC. I do not feel banning electric is the answer. I'm also not sure that banning people who have occasional containment failures is the answer either. Constant failures IS a problem. Which is what this person had. And it needs to be dealt with.
Next post will be about ride day. Which also was a failure. Thankfully not a catastrophic failure, but...the worst I've ever dealt with at a ride. I'll go over my thoughts and feelings from the day as well.
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