Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Lif:

You state <<< If people were 
able to choose from a large group of horses well suited for
the sport 
wouldn't we be seeing fewer veterinary problems?>>>

This might prove to be true if we really knew what the
veterinary problems were. We are doing some preliminary
studies to try to find out exactly how to categories the
problems that do manifest. We are trying to garner data from
endurance rides through out the USA but it is not a simple
black and white answer. Each horse often appears to have its
own individual problem. In fact at a ride where you have a
number of horses pulled, it is often a unique situation for
each individual. 

So, I do not know that your statement will prove out or not.
It will be interesting to find out but the answer is years
away.

Bob

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID 

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lif
Strand
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 5:51 PM
To: Ed & Wendy Hauser; Nancy Mitts; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [RC] [RC]Horse Buying/Selling


At 10:33 AM 7/20/2004, Ed & Wendy Hauser wrote:
> There will still be an oversupply of horses holding the
price down.

With all due respect, that's the problem - we shouldn't care
how many 
horses there are in the world, when we're talking endurance,
we should only 
be considering how many endurance horses there are in the
world.  We should 
not be looking at the admitted oversupply of horses of all
kinds as the 
pool from which we choose our equine athletes, we should be
looking at a 
smaller pool of horses bred to have the properties of top
notch endurance 
horses.

I believe there is an *undersupply* of endurance horses.  If
people were 
able to choose from a large group of horses well suited for
the sport 
wouldn't we be seeing fewer veterinary problems?  Wouldn't
we be seeing a 
significant overall *bettering* of times, and vet check
conditions, and 
more competition for that top ten position?  I don't think
we are seeing 
those things, and to me that indicates that the horses
chosen for the sport 
are not 100% suited for it.

Yeah, I could be wrong, but I think there's something to
this point of view.

I think we really don't have much of a choice in true
endurance horses to 
choose from yet.  I think that as long as so many believe
any old horse 
will do for endurance, then the quality of endurance
competition will 
reflect that any old horses are participating.

I personally think we haven't even begun to see what
endurance riding could 
be like when all the horses involved were bred for the
sport.  At that 
point, the price of endurance horses would go up, because if
you wanted to 
be even a little competitive, you'd have to have the best.


________________________________
   Lif Strand      fasterhorses.com
           Quemado NM USA


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