Competing with Injuries/Cuts

SaddlePsych'D

SaddlePsych'D

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Is this a thing? Are there circumstances where it is accepted to run dressage, SJ and XC with a horse having a fresh, open cut on a leg?

For context, I am thinking of making a report/complaint to an event organiser regarding something posted on social media. There are a couple of other things which make me think the horse shouldn't have been allowed to run XC in particular. My initial reaction is surely not but maybe I am being oversensitive. At the very least I don't think it's a great look for horse sports!
 
Our Connie sustained a deep wire cut to a fetlock shortly after we bought him, found too late to stitch so aimed to heal by secondary intent. He was lucky to miss the tendon by millimetres. He was never lame on it, it was cleaned, dressed and antibiotics. After a few days box rest I thought, if that was me, would I go to bed? No, I'd put a dressing on and get on with life, which is what we did with him, in large part to stimulate circulation and reduce scarring. It healed almost without trace, vet very impressed but we didn't compete with it bandaged, not a great look.
 
millikins said:
Our Connie sustained a deep wire cut to a fetlock shortly after we bought him, found too late to stitch so aimed to heal by secondary intent. He was lucky to miss the tendon by millimetres. He was never lame on it, it was cleaned, dressed and antibiotics. After a few days box rest I thought, if that was me, would I go to bed? No, I'd put a dressing on and get on with life, which is what we did with him, in large part to stimulate circulation and reduce scarring. It healed almost without trace, vet very impressed but we didn't compete with it bandaged, not a great look.
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That sounds much more thoughtful than the scenario this particular horse was in. Injury sustained on the way to competition, cleaned up, it's 'lame act' dismissed and off it went until eliminated XC due to rider fall.
 
A small graze I can understand continuing with- for instance most people wouldn't decide not to go on a run because they'd scratched their leg on a bramble, but anything deep/that left them a bit lame would be a no go.
If the animal was that obviously injured I'm surprised they weren't pulled up in the dressage- surely a fresh wound should be investigated at least?
 
FireCracker238 said:
Is this the influencer who ended up in a ditch because her horse wouldn't go past some cows? 🐄
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Maybe 😏 (though I would like to keep names off the thread)

Tbh the cut is fairly low down the long list of issues with this person, and the event of course is not responsible for all of them.
 
Small cut or graze yes I’ve competed, even went showing with some healing mud rash, chalk powder covered it and dried it up at the same time. Horse wasn’t lame or sore or infected so treated it the same as I would a superficial cut.

This person who you are speaking about marches to her own drum. The horse to me is far too lean and she just seems very inexperienced, however this is what happens when you put everything on the internet for people to see.
 
People keep going on about influencers and I have no idea who they are going in about 😂 I don't look for nor follow any such things 😂

To me it would depend on the wound and the discipline. If it were small cuts and scrapes attained by being a twat in the field/one a ride then I would do dressage, possibly show jumping depending on where the injuries were. I would not take such an animal showing or cros country.
 
If people are social ìnfluencers making money or taking merchandise as payment out of that activity then why don't they just get named in posts when they do something like this?

I've gone cross country and hunted with what I deemed were acceptable wounds in acceptable places on horses. I'd need to know a lot more about that one before I could judge.
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If a horse had a superficial bang / rub to say his hip from a partition in the lorry on the way to an event I wouldn't be overly panicking as prob all I would do at home is stick some botanica on it anyway, but anything that is enough to have a dressing / treatment on it in different circumstances shouldn't be competed on in my opinion.
 
ycbm said:
If people are social ìnfluencers making money or taking merchandise as payment out of that activity then why don't they just get named in posts when they do something like this?

I've gone cross country and hunted with what I deemed were acceptable wounds in acceptable places on horses. I'd need to know a lot more about that one before I could judge.
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In general I agree with the influencer thing. Some of them are pretty awful and in the past I have contacted a brand sponsor in the past to flag concerns about content.

This person does seem to have a lot of followers on FB but I dont think I'd call them an influencer, when I think of influencers doing lots of Instagram, YouTube etc. and having various brand sponsors. This person just posts an awful lot of stuff on FB, and much of it not stuff I would personally be wanting to showcase all over social media like it's something to be proud of (the falling in the ditch thing being a prime example).

Something apparently happened with a travel boot and the horse came off the lorry/trailer bleeding with a big cut on front of hind pastern. There was text alongside the images suggested horse was 'acting' lame after.
 
I would need to see a photo to know if I were offended or not. I tried to look for the passing cows/in a ditch video, to see if there is a photo shared, but can't find it.
 
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No, I would not have competed with that!

If I were there on the day, I would have complained to a steward at the time and (hopefully) have stopped it running. Would I complain after the event, with my only evidence being that photo? No, I don't think I would. The photo is unclear, a grey makes everything look worse too.

However, there is no telling if it were a non through thickness wound, doesn't look well as the leg hasn't even been washed off. Interesting that it is covered in muck but no blood. Looks like the black rubber from a partition skirt, which is tricky to wash off though. From that photo, it could just be a rub.

Charlie-Horse would go on 3 legs whenever he dinked a leg. I twice had people thinking he'd broken a leg or something, yet a few minutes later he'd be sound as a pound with a small flesh wound. Some humorous comment on FB is distasteful but she'd just say it was a joke or something.
 
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No that's bad 😔

Was at a county show years ago grooming for someone we were stood next to a well known show rider in the line up, the horse had a fresh injury that had been stitched up on the white part of its coat great big purple stitches and they still got placed.
 
I wouldn’t complain after the fact either with that photo TBH it’s not clear and with whit legs cuts always look worse than they are.

I also couldn’t judge based on that photo, but again I agree I don’t think she’s an influencer, she just likes to share regardless of the consequences.
 
Red-1 said:
View attachment 117215

No, I would not have competed with that!

If I were there on the day, I would have complained to a steward at the time and (hopefully) have stopped it running. Would I complain after the event, with my only evidence being that photo? No, I don't think I would.
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You're probably right here. I'm not sure why it wound me up (excuse pun!) so much last night. Probably because of the previously mentioned long list of ridiculous/dangerous stuff this person postals about, but of course those aren't at all the responsibility of the event and just the photo isn't much for them to go on.
 
That is a hefty enough would to warrant stitches/staples and a few days of bandaging and drugs. Well worth being lame on for the horse! It looks like they have become unbalanced in the lorry and the shoe on the other hoof and scored the gauge in it.

They shouldn't be competing with that. We wouldn't even ride a horse with that, it would have 3 or 4 days off to let the skin start to knit.
 
Roasted Chestnuts said:
I wouldn’t complain after the fact either with that photo TBH it’s not clear and with whit legs cuts always look worse than they are.

I also couldn’t judge based on that photo, but again I agree I don’t think she’s an influencer, she just likes to share regardless of the consequences.
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At this point I can't work out whether she actually enjoys the consequences, is willfully ignorant, or genuinely unable to think ahead.
 
Roasted Chestnuts said:
This person who you are speaking about marches to her own drum. The horse to me is far too lean and she just seems very inexperienced, however this is what happens when you put everything on the internet for people to see.
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Well I found the person concerned and given you said her horse 'is far too lean' I was expecting to see something half-starved when in fact all I saw was a fit horse of healthy weight! No wonder we have an equine obesity problem in this country!
 
I've never been impressed by any of her videos. I'd have been mortified if I'd acted the way she did in the cow video, and seeing that she made the poor bugger compete over XC with a fresh, bleeding injury on his pastern (an area that in particular sees a lot of motion, bending and stretching of the skin) just beggars belief.
 
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