This message is from: Karen McCarthy [EMAIL PROTECTED]
... I adore watching dressage and
also team penning and cutting. I want to see the reining competition..
Just had to jump into the fray...having evented up to Prelim level ages ago,
and knowing what amount of training these horses and riders go though, to
malign the whole sport because of overwrought reporting of a few
unfortuinate accidents is really unfair.I really think the sport of eventing
has been tightened up in the past 10 years.
Yes, there are a few bad actors in every equestrian sport, at every level,
and always will be. Keeping your nose clean and not placing unrealistic
demands on you and your horse is half the equation in training for any
competitive sport, along with a quality horse and good skills.
Need to mention that TB racing on the whole is really pretty unsavory - in
college I worked a couple of summers on the Calif Fair circuit, and geez!
that was a real eye opening experience, to say the least. I worked for one
trainer who was as rotten as they come (quit at day 3), then I was very
lucky to work for a hispanic trainer who limited his barn to 6 horses only,
and really spent quality time not just conditioning these young horses, (he
specialised in maiden horses), but training them, basiclly giving them a
whole education, not just a quick trip to the gate. His horses were a joy to
work with,good ground manners, he recognised their indiviuality, etc.
Don't forget that there is a reason that there is a huge market for all the
joint and soft tissue related products...take the very popular sport of
reining and working cowhorse events. How many aged events do you see that
are highly promoted? Not many horses left to enter these events! Used to be
a horse was in his prime as a using ranch horse, say from age 7+ Nowadays a
horse of this age is a rarity - as they just don't last that long, due to
starting them as 2 year olds in order to make the futurities, which is so
ironiclly named, as what kind of a future is it, as a 4 year old horse with
blown hocks???
I am not saying that if a horse is carefully brought along it will always be
100% sound. No, there will always be physical side effects, but not on such
a huge scale as is seen in todays competitive world.
As I see it, the crime being comitted here folks, is that these horses are
being asked to do high level tasks, in a minimum of time, due primarily to
our crowded lives, and our desire to have it all, right NOW.
When you see someone competing sucessfully year after year, at the upper
levels with their own horses, the same horses, for themselves and not some
barn or sponsor, you just know that their horses are really living up to
their full competitive potential - happily, soundly.
OK, end of sermon on the soapbox..
Karen
Carson City,NV
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