ridecamp@endurance.net: At what price?

At what price?

Barbara Madill (madill@teleplex.net)
Tue, 30 Sep 1997 05:14:40 -0400 (EDT)

On Date: Sun, 28 Sep 97 17:22:12 PDT you wrote to dahlia@gte.net (susan) on
the subject: Re: Could I step in?

>Susan:

>My personal practice is not to start competing an endurance horse until the
age of >seven or eight.

Oh how I agree!!

Susan had written
>> I ended up with one of those > "racing" endurance horses who was
finished (in endurance riding) soon after she started. She did win alot, but
at what price?

to which you replied
>At what price is right. The young ones can do it, for awhile. They don't
often come >back season after season. This is what I am learning. I would
really like to see the >minimum age requirement be bumped up to at least
five for limited distance and six for >50's and up.

I'm not sure that limiting JUST the age will achieve the desired
results. I still feel that there should be a "qualification" or
"apprenticeship" process to help new riders learn the sport while training
their young horses for long distance competition.

It would be interesting to query the experienced riders on their
opinion of how they would change what they did when they were first
competing. I know I sidelined one five year old youngster for nearly a year
because I had trained to his strengths (phenomenal recoveries) and didn't
spend enough time working on his overall musculature.

It is SO hard to drop back to a youngster after having a seasoned
horse! But patience pays off in the long run. I'd advise NOT competing
youngtsers -- use them to "drag" or "trot and trim" -- do all of the things
the "big" horses do, but without the pressure of being in the competition.

Yet another opinion . . .

Barbara (and Zaim -- why do I have to let all those horses race by me?
C'mon, Mom, let's GO!)

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