Heidi - I think a lot of us wholeheartedly agree with you, BUT
unfortunately there are a lot of breeders or professional trainers / riders out
there who cannot or will not share this view, for various reasons but frequently
simply through the pressure owners or jockeys put on them
in France for ex the (money) stakes have risen enormously over the past
years - selling one young flash-in-the-pan could safeguard an entire
breeding program for several years
Pauline
Dans un e-mail daté du 23/06/2006 04:37:39 Paris, Madrid,
heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx a écrit :
As a breeder of endurance horses, I will gently disagree.... I
don't want my horses to be flash-in-the-pan wonders--I want them to have long
careers. It does a lot more for my business to have horses out doing
well over many years than to have them race a few times and disappear.
So my "business interest" and the interest of horse welfare are one and the
same...
Heidi
--------
Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [RC] lowered age
limit From: "Barbara McCrary" <bigcreekranch@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Date:
Thu, June 22, 2006 8:42 am To: <Pvan19@xxxxxxx>,
<anyone@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
lowering the age limit has everything to do with economics for
breeders & owners, and nothing with protecting the horse
obvious - no?
Pauline
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ From:
"Barbara McCrary" <bigcreekranch@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject:
Re: [RC] USEF, Tom Johnson & damaging
speculation.
I agree with this issue of horse's age
wholeheartedly. I have brought along numerous horses over the
years from 4 year olds to a strong working endurance horse. In
my experience, a horse is ready to start a few LDs when he is 5, then
a few slow 50s when he is 6, then more 50s and maybe a 75 when he's 7,
a greater workload when he's 8, and finally, at age 9, I think he's
ready for 100s. I'm not just talking about conditioning, either,
but about the horse's maturity, both physically and mentally. To
me, when a horse has reached 9, he's ready to be considered
mature. If I would make any amendments to the above, I would say
a horse might try a slow or easy 100 at age 8, but it wouldn't bother
me any to see him a full 9 years old before trying 100s. Yes, I
know that Rio won Tevis as a 7 year old, and that he was still in
great condition and soundness at 22 or 23, but there aren't very many
Rios in the world. The horse was a real "freak of nature", very
much as the legendary Justin Morgan was one. JMO, and not a very
humble one, either.
Barbara
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynne Glazer" <anyone@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: "Ridecamp
Correspondence Correspondence" <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent:
Wednesday, June 21, 2006 12:31 PM Subject: [RC] USEF, Tom Johnson &
damaging speculation.
>> Re horse age: I am concerned
to see a 7 year old horse on the team. 7 >> years
old! Doing 10 hour 100s! I know the rider is very
experienced, >> but dang--that horse isn't done growing
yet. I am not a fan of rules >> except to protect
the horse--and wish we had a minimum age for >>
international competition, especially since we know these are fast
>> courses. >> >>
Lynne
