Reprinted from Endurance News, August 2008, monthly publication of the American Endurance Ride Conference, www.aerc.org, 866-271-2372
Co-authored by Nick Kohut, DVM
It’s two weeks before your ride and your phone rings. Turns out that both your head veterinarian and the other control vet scheduled to work your ride have crashed into each other while waterskiing and have broken all four of their legs. Now what do you do?
Take a deep breath. Similar crises have been weathered by AERC ride managers. The first step is to go to the AERC website (www.aerc.org), click on the Vet section and bring up the Certified Head Vet list, which includes all of the veterinarians, by region, who have successfully passed the AERC veterinary certification examination.
The number of vets listed per region runs the gamut from as few as 15 in the Pacific Southwest to as many as 33 in the Southeast. Do you recognize any of the names? Have you been to rides where they’ve worked? Make a list of their names.
If you have some familiarity with several of the vets, thoughts should then turn to what type of ride you run. Do you get a large turnout of riders? If so, maybe you need to consider a vet who works quickly. Does your ride present several challenges? Is it a new ride? Maybe you should look for vets with considerable experience. Is your ride fairly easy? Maybe you can offer the head vet position to a newer vet for the experience and get one of the “old-timers” to serve as a mentor.
Consider too the atmosphere of your ride. Like ride managers, veterinarians often have their own ideas of how things should be run. Are they laid back? Do they run a fairly tight ship? Will they fit in with the ride and its general atmosphere?
Now’s the time to start making phone calls or sending e-mails. Contact another ride manager, or several. Join the AERC Ride Managers’ e-mail discussion forum, if you haven’t already. Ask questions. Have they worked with any of the vets on your list? What was their experience like with them? Were they sociable? Were the riders happy with the veterinarians?
List your choices for head vet and continue making phone calls. First, find out if they’re available for your ride. If you don’t know them very well, ask some questions:
— How many rides have they worked?
— How many of those were as the head vet?
— Do they feel comfortable serving as the head vet? If they’re on the certified list, they should be aware of the requirements for the head vet.
— Do they have recommendations for other vets they’ve worked with who could also work at the ride?
— What are the service fees and expenses?
Be sure to brainstorm about treatment plans. Will a treatment vet be on site? If not, what are the closest clinic locations? How will this information be communicated to the riders? If you’re going to have treatment supplies on site to be prepared to stabilize a horse for transport, who will be responsible for ensuring supplies are available at the ride site and adequate for the number of horses and conditions anticipated?
Don’t be afraid to go out of your region for vets. If you’re willing to pick up the travel expenses, many of the vets from further away are willing to come to rides if they’re available.
While we present a scenario of a last-minute crunch for a ride vet, this game plan also works well for selecting a vet months in advance. Then all you have to do is keep your head veterinarian from participating in high-risk sports with your other ride vets!