Re: RC: Purebred but not registered

[DreamWeaver <dreamweaver@gbis.com>]

At 12:46 PM 03/22/2001 -0500, Rides 2 Far wrote:
>Starting a 13 year old is fine, but even if you "know that he
>will be a competitor" he'll be 15 by the time he's ready to *really*
>compete.

Guess that depends on the horse.  I  know of one horse who did his first 
endurance ride at either 13 or 14 years old and retired with 6,000 
miles.  I don't know how many people plan on riding a horse that many 
miles, but not many do even if they start them in the sport at 5.  Tho I 
suspect people have many different ideas of what really competing is, tho 
if somebody were to wanna race a horse into the ground the older horse 
might hold up longer.  I dunno, maybe a younger one would.......:+P

Usually if a horse is a natural athlete they pick it up pretty quick, like 
in a couple of months.  I know Maryben started Bandit just three months or 
so before we did the EHSC 50 this past summer.  He came thru it in a lot 
better shape than his rider did <dar>.....heck, it didn't even phase him at 
all.

k