In a message dated 9/3/2004 7:33:35 AM Pacific Standard Time,
tprevatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Another
thing to ponder is, "are endurance riders in general more prone to get
a "pound dog" that spend big bucks to a breeder or worse a puppy
mill?" I don't know but I will tell you my dog is a "pound hound" and
he is a wonderful dog. Could this spill over to how they also look at their
other pets - their horses?
Probably a lot do - but I wouldn't lump Arabian sport horse breeders in
with puppy mills and certainly not even other Arabian breeders. The nightmare of
an Arabian breeders producing dozens if not hundreds of foals a season in hopes
of getting a ...."Champion" (halter horse, whatever the heck that ends up
meaning) is not the same, since it is so very costly to raise a potential
endurance horse to an age where it can actually be assessed for that purpose. I
don't really know of any endurance breeders who overproduce.
That said, all of oru dogs have ALWAYS been adoptees, and their beautiful,
caring attitudes reflect I think their sense the relief and gratefulness - but I
don't ask them to go 50 miles, either. The issues that can come with pound
puppies, fostered dogs and auction or rescue horses - wow. physical or mental, I
don't believe that an auction or rescue is necessarily a desirable place to seek
an athlete capabale of managing - let alone starring in - a sport like
endurance. Just about any other discipline, I would guess most decent adoptees
can manage but endurance? Hmmm. That is asking a lot fo a horse who might have
been starved, worm-infested, beaten up by other horses, etc.
If I am going to ask a horse for a maximum equine effort, I Want to know
that said horse is bred, cared for and trained up to the effort. That's why I
like to raise my own - but wow - as I get older - man, anyone have a smallish,
even teenaged Fadjur mare who is smooth and quiet for old bones??:) S
