Can a horse with mild laminitis be competitive?

["Danielle McLaurin" <endurancewannabe@hotmail.com>]

Hi!

My name's Danielle and I'm a newbie on the list.  I haven't really started 
doing endurance yet, but a friend of mine (I've been her main crew person 
for years) has graciously said I could ride one of her horses for endurance 
this year.  I'm really excited about it--ever since I started crewing for 
her I fell in love with the sport.

I have a Tennessee Walking Horse named Pistol that I've trained (mostly) by 
myself.  He's a fun little horse and in April we moved to a different barn 
so I could have a little more freedom with my horse and my training methods 
(didn't agree with my instructor's methods at all...).  Eventually I would 
like to start endurance or competitve trail with him, as I think it would be 
really fun.  I've gotten tired of showing for the most part and am looking 
for a change in pace.

As for Pistol, I'm curious about whether or not laminitis would affect his 
ability to perform.  I'm not really out to win (yet), just out to complete, 
and defiently starting him in the smaller limitied distance rides.  This 
June he managed to have a mild case of laminitis, it was very slow in 
developing and I (as well as the barn owner) thought he had either pulled a 
shoulder muscle or had an abcess because we could never really pin-point any 
1 problem.  A week later we had the farrier out to rule out any hoof 
problems and he suspected laminitis, which it was.  Pistol's case was very 
mild, but he did have a slight (1-2 degrees) rotation of the coffin bone one 
1 hoof.  I've been bringing him back slowly since August and he's doing 
nicely.  I started working him in a snaffle (haha on the old instructor) and 
he's getting the hang of it.  Just this week we started adding canter spurts 
into our rides, but we still have a lot of muscle-developing to add.

So I guess what my main question is, is that if I take time to condition him 
slowly and properly, and he has no re-occuring bouts of laminitis, do you 
think he'll be OK with completing some rides?  I do plan on talking to my 
vet, but just to get ideas that I'm not totally crazy first?  Any input 
would be highly appreciated!

Also, I'm looking into buying a used saddle soon, mainly for endurance.  I 
can't decide whether I want to buy a dressage saddle, or get the 
endurance-specialized type saddle.  I'll be riding my friend's Arab as well 
as my walker in it.  Are there any pros/cons to one over the other?  Or, 
would you suggest a treeless model?  Thanks!

Danielle & Pistol
http://www.geocities.com/tnwalkers/index.html


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