Your right though, just plain good feed, health care, and careful trainin=
g is
what most of these horses need, rather than fancy (albeit, most times
unneccesary supplements/gimmics) to finish mid-pack. You know what attra=
cts me
the most to endurance riding-is how interested and knowledgable people a=
re in
their horses care. I came from the hunter show ring-and most owners didn=
't
know hell about their horses care. You see,they just do what their traine=
r
says, for heavens sakes, we used to have our horses "prepped" for the ri=
ng.-
Most of them don't know crap about nutrition, training, horse behavior, s=
addle
fitting, you name it (oh, forgive me, except we were darn good at looking
pretty over fences).
Horses, as much as we would like to believe, were NOT "designed" for our
purposes. The act of riding is highly unnatural, the horse is built lik=
e a
suspension bridge between the fore and hind legs. The spine is "designed=
" to
support the "guts" of the horse as they hang underneath the spine. The =
horse
was NOT "designed" to carry weight on top of the spine as well as support=
his
entire torso from underneath. But, they get along alright, if we take in
consideration their physical limitations.
I think it is so cool how interested people are in the welfare of the hor=
se.
There is so much for all of us to learn no matter what level we our on. H=
orses
are a never-ending learning process. I think even familiarizing ourselve=
s with
the more "extreme" points of horse care, whether we are out to win or ju=
st to
simply educate ourselves for the heck of it, says an awful lot about the
people in this sport.
Kelly