They never say die

Endurance rides can kill horses.

Half a dozen have perished during or immediately after endurance rides in the United States this year. Two others dropped dead of exhaustion at the rain-slicked, mud-slopped World Equestrian Games in Spain last year. Because of their herd instincts and desire to please, horses can push themselves until they drop.

“Good horses have an amazing generosity and courage,” said John Strassburger, editor of the trade publication the Chronicle of the Horse. Dehydration, electrolyte loss, even genetics can play a role. Sometimes a heart just gives out.

Official endurance rides in the U.S. and abroad have mandatory veterinary checks and cool-down periods. But as the sport’s popularity grows, many fear deaths will increase. They fret about international organizers who want endurance riding to become a televised Olympic event.

“They’re trying to make it into a spectator sport. All they’re going to do is hurt the horses,” said Clarissa Hale, timekeeper at this year’s national championship in Red Rock, Nev.

At the world games in Jerez, Spain, last year, influential Europeans successfully lobbied to cut the last vet check, claiming it could hurt the horses more to have them repeatedly speed up and slow down. Many say that move, combined with horrific weather and a rider on an unfamiliar horse, led to the deaths.

“It was reprehensible, it should not have happened,” said Strassburger, who was at the race.

Although the Federation Equestrienne Internationale, the event sponsor, investigated, neither riders nor officials were penalized, said Dane Frazier, who as foreign veterinary delegate prepared one report.

The fifth vet check was restored for future races, and other rule changes were made. But even that was not without protest.

Veterinarian Jim Baldwin sides with Arab sheiks and others seeking greater glory for the sport. “I’m not too old to be an Olympic judge, and I’d like to see my daughter endurance ride for a medal. I don’t see long-term evidence of harm to horses.”

There is no question that most horses do fine at endurance. But the deaths at high-profile events now form an uneasy backdrop to this close-knit sport, lighting up online chat rooms. In a pursuit in which many travel from ride to ride and know each other and the horses well, such incidents devastate. “We’re like a traveling small town, everyone’s going to hear about these things,” said Dabney Finch of Murrietta.

Finch quit midway through Southern California’s Manzanita Ride last month, even though she was in first place. Her horse, Kaizen, had cramped up on one side.

“It isn’t worth the risk,” she said. “He’s my beautiful baby boy.”

-- Janet Wilson