Heidi, I am thinking that the statement, "other breeds are fully grown and mature at age 4"", may be the misconception people have of the quarter horse and breeds such as that. Unfortunately, breeders and trainers of said breeds start these colts at a very early age in order to be able to compete with them at the reining and cutting futurities. And you also see this with race horses. This leaves people thinking it is okay to ride a young horse "hard" at an early age. A true misconception. Lori B. ----- Original Message ----- From: Heidi Smith Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 3:57 PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Stephanie_D_Adair@xxxxxxx Subject: Re: [RC] Comments on LD > IMO-that would eliminate other breeds.
Why would it eliminate other breeds? This is a "life sport" and they have
many later years in which to be ridden.
>Others breeds are fully grown and
> mature at age 4
I have yet to meet a horse of ANY breed that is "fully grown and mature at
age 4...."
> I've known Arabs that grew another 1/2"
> in their 5th year.
I've known Arabs to grow until they are 8. I'd say their average age of
maturity is around 7.
>We would have to have a "minimum age" for every breed
> out there
Why? The main thing is to see that the majority have reached a suitable
level of maturity before being asked to compete. Most Arabs are ready to
start at age 4, even though they have much longer until maturity. One would
hope that any horses being used would have at least SOME time under saddle
before being asked to compete. There is no evidence that completing LD's at
age 4 does any harm to a 4-year-old, if he doesn't mature for a few more
years. The concern is whether 4-year-olds will be asked to do LD's at
speed--the speed is the issue.
Personally, I don't see any problems with the rule as it exists. Somebody
suggested that we be "proactive" instead of "reactive". That can be good
advice, up to a point--but we can't think up every situation in which some
idiot might go out and hurt a horse at some point in the future, and make a
rule to cover it. I suppose somebody, somewhere, has run a 4-year-old at
speed on LD's. In the thousands of LD entries I've seen over the years,
I've never seen it to be an issue. One CAN be so "proactive" that one
becomes downright reactionary--kind of a full circle. I don't have any
objection to raising the horse age for LD's to 5, but I haven't seen a need
for it, either.
Heidi
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