My yearly blog post reporting the results! I also volunteered this year (linked post in this one!)
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Great write up- thank you!
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So 46 horses (43% of the starters) went lame or colicked? Am I interpreting the pull data right? And that’s considered normal?
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I’m not sure where you are seeing colic? If you mean metabolic, yes, it could mean colic (but not super likely). Metabolic a lot of times means the pulse is hanging or maybe your horse isn’t having a great day drinking and it’s getting dehydrated or gut sounds aren’t great.
And lame can mean a lot of different things- it could mean LAME like got a stone bruise or something and they are head bobbing, clearly off lame. Or it could mean they are take one or two maybe kind of off steps in trot out, vet says horse is okay to continue but rider chooses not to. I actually had the second scenario happen to me this year and it turned out to be an issue with a boot not lameness at all.
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Understood - and looking at FEI rules metabolic means issues with " mucous membranes characteristics, capillary refill time, hydration, intestinal activity (gut sounds), demeanour and Cardiac Recovery Index.) so that could be colic or “might colic if it kept going” - I definitely know of one actual colic at Tevis this year.
For lameness the article separated out rider options vs lameness pulls - does that mean the instance where the vet says OK to go but rider decides not to is a “rider option”? And 28 other horses were varying degrees of lame?
The FEI rules do say that “If after having once trotted the Horse, the observing Veterinarian questions the Horse’s fitness to continue, the Horse will be re-trotted before a panel of three Veterinarians accompanied by a Ground Jury member.” so it seems like a couple off steps would get a serious reexamination by multiple people: does that hold true for national competitions? At the FEI level at least, lameness pulls appear to be actual lame horses, be that temporary dings or damage that requires rehab: they are too lame to continue.
Do FEI-sanctioned events have lower levels of pulls than national events?
I would say in eventing if 43% of horses were deemed medically unfit to continue, it would be a disaster and there would be an outcry. Perhaps if there were more vet checks immediately following a phase we would see a different side to things though.
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FEI is a totally different ballgame, Tevis is not an FEI ride
IME, if the vet sees the horse in the check and then says you need to work on something (like go back give your horse some more elytes or do some massage work) and then you decide to pull rather than represent, your pull is lameness or metabolic even if your horse might really be fine
If you come in and before the vetting tell someone hey, we’re just not feeling it today, then you are Rider Optioning (and you are still required to have your horse checked by a vet before leaving)
I think if you have never been to a ride and are just looking at numbers, it looks like horses are just collapsing left and right. But the majority of horses really are fine, they just aren’t fit to continue the race. IDK if you do any type of endurance sport but I compare it to when I’m training for an ultra marathon and something feels NQR. It’s not like I can’t run but I can feel that if I keep going I might make myself lame. Does that make sense? The endurance vets are there to help you and your horse get safely through a ride.
Now does this mean that sometimes there aren’t major issues like a colic or a horse that stepped wrong and is a 3/5 lame? No. That certainly happens but those def aren’t the majority or even a lot of pulls
In 20 years of doing distance rides, I’ve had my share of pulls and rider options. Only once have I ever had a horse that wasn’t 100% fine by the time we got home and that was a lameness pull where it turned out she had Lyme.
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Certainly typical of Tevis (though metabolic does not mean colic, though it can happen)
Metabolic is the same for Tevis and AERC as for FEI.
Yes, when the horse is deemed fit to continue by vets but the rider doesn’t want to continue, it’s a rider option. Sometimes that is a rider issue (sick, hurt), sometimes the rider just feels like the horse isn’t quite right. After all, the riders know their horses best!
Rider option-lame (or rider option-metabolic) is a grey area I myself do not exactly understand. My mare River tied up once, and she was DEFINITELY lame (in the sense that she wasn’t fit to continue even if there was not a limp) and it appears in my AERC record as Rider option-lame. Maybe because I said hey I’m quitting before the vet assessed? No idea.
When I actually rider-optioned, my horse was NOT lame, but I just KNEW she was wrong. I couldn’t tell if she was going to colic or get 3-legged lame or had an illness, but I knew I had to stop. Turns out she had a pectoral muscle pull.
Most of the horses that are pulled for lameness in Tevis have minor issues and will be fine in the morning. The thing is, a small stone bruise is unimportant but means you cannot continue. Sore feet… a muscle spasm…
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Yes totally - thanks for explaining it!
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