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Re: [RC] Mares as Riding Horses - heidiAnd there was never a mare that was forced to lose a year of competition, either. Mares can compete when they're pregnant. You wouldn't want to be taking an 11 month mare on Tevis, but I can't think of any reason why you couldn't take a mare on a responsibly ridden 50 miler pretty far into the pregnancy. You can start some easy conditioning of the mare with the foal at side - as you bring her back to top form, you're also getting a nice base on the foal, and when the mileage is too much, the foal gets practice being weaned for longer and longer periods. If you time a pregnancy right, you don't have to "lose" much competition time at all. And, of course, if you don't want to even lose that much opportunity for competition when riding a mare, you just don't breed her. I don't see much of a problem with that! I did two 80-milers in the fall of 1984 after weaning one of Sansih's foals, when she was 18 years old. She had carried a junior rider to the PNER Junior Championship the year before, at age 17, and pregnant. She was bred in the spring of 1985, and did over 1000 miles that year, mostly Top Tens, at age 19. She had her last foal at 20, just fine, and did her last ride the fall of that year, as memory serves. And Lif is right--you CHOOSE to breed them, you don't HAVE to breed them. They CAN campaign their entire lives without ever having a baby... BTW, I've not found that mares will "go til they drop"--instead, they are the survivalists of the species. They are not wimps, and they will gut things out and put up with some discomfort to do so--but they tend to back off before they hurt themselves, and pick up again later when all is well. When a mare backs off, it does pay to listen to her--she usually isn't pulling your leg. But she won't whine over the small stuff, either. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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