Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

      We could point fingers at every horse event and find deaths.  But, I would be curious to the average life expectancy of a horse as a pasture ornament, vs the life expectancy of an endurance horse. 

      Personally, if I were a horse, I would rather be an endurance horse than a pasture ornament.  Sure, most days I could convince myself that being a pasture ornament would be a pretty good deal.  Eat whenever I wanted, no worries, everything I could possibly want. 

      I as a rider, I consider myself the personal trainer (like the ones the movie stars use)  I feed the horse the best food, give him regular workouts, give him mental and muscular challenges about once a month (in the form of rides).

      Sometimes, when I pull out that saddle, my horse gives me the same look I gave my P.E. teacher in middle school.  But all in all, I feel that I am doing a good thing in endurance riding.   

-Stacy

k s swigart <katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Truman said:
>
> > On the other hand the rider chose for herself to
> > make that jump. She made the choice - she paid the
> > price. The horse didn't have a say. The horse is an
> > unwitting partner in our activities.
>
> Only somebody who has never jumped a horse would say such a thing. Anybody who has every jumped a horse KNOWS that you can't make a horse jump, and the horse has all the say. Horses only go over jumps by choice (which is why competitors get penalties for refusals). Saying "Uh uh, ain't doin' it!" is well within the repertoire of all horses that are put to a fence and asked to jump it.
>
> Horses only
>  try to jump jumps that they think they can successfully jump (which is why many of them refuse); sometimes they can be wrong in their assessment of their abilities, and sometimes they perform badly (and sometimes they perform badly because the rider rode badly) and might injure themselves in the process, but make no mistake, if they don't think they can do it, they can and WILL exercise their prerogative to refuse. 
>
> Training horses to jump obstacles is an exercise in building enough confidence to get them to try. The trying part is entirely at the discretion of the horse.
>
> Refusals on the part of the horse (i.e. the horse having its say) are, in fact, probably the biggest cause of RIDER injuries on a jump course.
>
> Contrary to apparent belief here, very few horses die (or suffer catastrophic accidents) in three day eventing, and it is virtually unheard of (this is the only one _I_ have heard of) at the Junior Novice level. A horse is probably more likely
>  to fall and break its leg or neck at liberty in a pasture accident than at a Junior Novice three day event.
>
> kat
> Orange County, Calif.
>
>
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