Re: Do I still want to do endurance?

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

Carol arabracer@hotmail.com
Christian, I asked myself the same question when I was 
worried about the long term effects of this sport. It's 
true some horses do develop problems but by the same token 
I had many people e-mail me and tell me their horses have 
been doing endurance all their life and are still going at 
the age of 20+. It just depends on the genetic disposition 
of the horse, ie. is it prone to arthritis, how well it has 
been taken care of, how hard it was pushed, was it forced
 to train on hard ground, etc...and I hate to say this 
but almost all serious athletes develop some amount of 
arthritis as they age it's just all the wear and tear on 
the joints that comes with all the pounding. I personally 
would not continue to do endurance on a horse if it showed 
any signs of breakdown, but yours sounds like he doesn't, so 
why worry? Have his legs x-rayed if you're concerned. Good luck.