True Grit is not a movie I would recommend for horse lovers. If you haven’t seen the movie, you will just have to trust me, and, if you have, then you know exactly which part I am talking about. It’s a pretty tasteless scene, but something tells me that the Coen brothers don’t mind me saying so. Other than that one scene, the movie is surprisingly upbeat, even funny at times, and I can see why both critics and viewers have given it good reviews. Now for some eventing news and notes:
—A UK vet has been suspended for 8 months after he falsified export certificates by indicating the horses had been in France, Ireland, or the UK in the 60 days prior to export when he had no such knowledge. This is obviously hurts the trust that is necessary between veterinarians and the involved parties of an international horse sale or transport. But, it’s important to be realistic: do passport vaccinations sometimes get backdated, does every health certificate involve a head-to-hoof exam of every horse, and do export certs occasionally get fudged? Sure, and 99% of the time it’s not a problem, but the concern is that 1% of the time.
—A champion racehorse named War Pass has mysteriously died at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky, which, coincidentally, is where Zenyatta lives. The morning of his death the horse seemed fine and died several hours later in his paddock. Preliminary necropsy results are inconclusive.
–The latest study supporting the supposition that veterinary medicine is an art as well as a science comes from New Zealand, where a mailed questionnaire to veterinarians revealed that there is a lack of consensus among vets on elements of pain management. Just 63% of vets responding to the survey considered their knowledge of recognition of pain to be adequate which raises the question: why were they responding to a questionnaire instead of learning more about pain?
—Best of the Blogs: One more bad horse movie you have to see
–We are working on getting in touch with our Point Two contest winner. So, if you haven’t checked your email in the past three days now would be a good time. We will announce the winner as soon as we hear back from them.
—VIDEOS: USEA Convention Safety Study Updates
That’s all the news and notes for now. Coren is flying to Europe for a brief holiday so we wish her happy travels. I’ll be back in a few, and until then we can start counting down the days left in 2010. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Take it away David:
