"want to do endurance"

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Donna Snyder-Smith rightrider@cs.com
When reading your post, there are a couple of thoughts that
occur.  First, although you did say you were very competitive, 
which may eliminate this possibility for you, I assume you
have thought of slowing down as an option to 
simply leaving the sport.  There is a great deal of debate on
whether it is endurance riding or endurance racing and in truth,
in my opinion, it is both.  You can "ride" through an event or
you can "race" through an event.  Both can be done well, and both
can be done poorly (increasing the risk of injury to the horse).
With your competitiveness, you may not be interested in doing 
endurance "riding," only endurance "racing," but the people you
meet, etc. are the same.
As to wear and tear on the horse, I've spent a professional life
time with horses and "played" in more than a few disciplines.
I probably don't need to tell you that you can find abuse (of the
horse) in any of them if you know where to look.  Frankly, I've 
seen some of the other discipline do a lot more damage to horses
who were being competed than most endurance horses experience.
I, like you, keep coming back to the fact that endurance horses
as a group seem to genuinely enjoy what they do.  Not that I've
never seen a happy jumper, event horse or dressage horse, etc. 
but I haven't seen them in the sheer numbers that I've seen happy
endurance horses (and I've been in lots of places where these and
other activities were taking place, for many years).  Also, horses
in these disciplines break down too.  So the question becomes, is 
there a sport where, if you participate to the degree where 
you want to do more than win once or twice or at the "local"  
level, you won't run the same risk of deterioration  to the horse?  Let's just say, I've never seen evidence of that.  Horses who seem to grow old in a competitive sport with less than an
average amount of wear and tear have some things in common.  First, they have conformation which makes them suitable for the
job.  Second, they were not asked to bear weight, or started in
their discipline career too young (before 4 years).  Third, they
receive regular time off from their jobs, between competitions and between competitive seasons and during this vacation 
time, they are usually housed at what amounts to a horse "spa."
Green, good grass pasture, with lots of room to roam (keeping 
their muscles loose and in good shape). Fourth, they had owner
trainers who made sure their athletic partner had what they
needed in the way of correctly fitted equipment, shoes, etc.  The
shoes thing alone can take a lifetime of study, and trust me (I could give you more details if you want), even when you think you
have gotten the best, you can be fooled, as x-rays are now 
showing in this four point balance system of shoeing! (but that's
another story).  Then ofcourse there's good riding. NO ONE YET 
puts as much responsibility for competitive wear and tear on
the horse, on the shoulders of the rider.  I don't just mean 
speed or frequency, I mean BALANCE.  I mean FLUID non interfering
riding.  This is not an easy thing.  For hundreds of years, 
equestrians the world over have spent lifetimes "becoming one
with the horse."  While I fully realize that not everyone who
rides will "become one with their horse," for more than an 
isolated moment or two, I also know most riders do not realize
how much tension and crookedness in their bodies inhibits their
horse's ability to balance and "defend" itself from the wear and
tear of its work.  
Guess what I'm saying is, there are other options you could 
explore if you don't want to give up the sport, and yes, I am
sure there are other riders who ask themselves the same question
you are wrestling with, I know I have in the past and I'm sure
I will in the future.  I also ask myself these other 
questions as well, however.  Did/is, my horse enjoying their life?  Are they as comfortable as I can possibly make them?  
Could I realistically afford to just do nothing with them but
turn them out in hundreds of acres of pasture and feed and care
for them?  Could I be absolutely sure that if I entrusted them
to someone elses care, rather than ride/compete them, they
would have a better life?  Some things to think on.  Happy trails
DSS