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Re: [RC] Philosophy and goals in distance riding ! Long! - rdcarrie<<I am curious why people have that idea that endurance is dangerous for horses. >>
I'd guess we'd have to ask some of those who hold this viewpoint in order to get at the real answers - that would actually be really interesting to do. But I'm guessing a big part of it is the miles. For people who "trail ride" - putter down the trail at a walk for 2 hours and think they've really done a hard ride on their horse, or for people who show various disciplines and think they're really working their horse hard with 4 or 5 minutes competition in the ring, the mere thought of riding a horse 25, 50, or <gasp> 100 miles in a day probably does seem like it would put the horse at risk. I remember some months ago seeing a post on an Arabians discussion board regarding a horse working in the ring (can't remember the discipline) needing conditioning and that it was *such* hard work for the horse. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. Not saying that a horse doesn't need to be conditioned for showing...far from it. But that post really brought home how out of touch show people
are with the true capabilities of properly conditioned horses. Then think about people with even *less* knowledge of horses' capabilities than show people...they could easily be horrified at the thought of the distances we do.
Dawn -----Original Message----- From: Tiffany D'Virgilio <tiffshorse@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: Tiffany D'Virgilio <tiffshorse@xxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Dfarnham09@xxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 09:26:09 -0700 Subject: Re: [RC] Philosophy and goals in distance riding ! Long! I'm not trying to be flippant, I am curious why people have that idea that endurance is dangerous for horses. I have seen more people deeply care for the horse's welfare than in all the other horse sports I've either been involved in or watched. We have all heard of or have seen show trainers beat the crap out of horses, put tight draw reins or other training "devices", I've seen H/J trainers who put nails on the training poles so old dobbin lifts those feet higher, I've seen little girls beat their horses when they didn't get that blue ribbon. I showed my whole childhood, boarded at the LAEC where there are some VERY well known H/J and show barns, and I have yet to see the horse sport where more love, concern and horse wisdom are applied than endurance.
The vast majority of endurance riders don't race, so the vast majority of endurance horses are not at an increased danger level, or even injury level when compared to other horse sports. Does the horse welfare committee haven any stats on % of horses injured?
It makes me sad that people would think endurance is a dangerous sport for horses. All horse sports carry some level of danger, but I don't feel like endurance should be singled out are more dangerous than eventing and the like.
Tiffany
= On Apr 4, 2006, at 8:52 AM, Tiffany D'Virgilio wrote: Endurance more dangerous for the horse than jumping or eventing? Why do you have that view?
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