Re: Endurance & Racing (track)

[rides2far@juno.com (Angela C. McGhee)]

>  My mom has been racing her horses for 17 years and NO bowed
>tendeons or leg problems in that time.  dee

What about tendons?  (smart aleck says from back of class)  I cannot
imagine this.  We had horses on the track.  With my dad's two we had shin
bucking.  Add in the cousin's dozen or so and  a tendon or two went...one
fractured coffin bone, fortunately no broken legs (but I saw a lot of
them).  They weren't being pushed that horribly hard, they were just WAY
too young.  Any time you ask horses for maximum effort, when many are
just TURNING 2 years old, stuff goes.

I know there was an age, don't remember, seems like it was 4, that if a
horse hadn't broken his maiden by then, you couldn't race him.  Had a
friend with an incredibly fast 5 yr. old QH.  He outran a horse off the
track who had set a track record, but she couldn't take him to the track
because it was too late.

By the way, an endurance rider in the SE who spent lots of time at TB
tracks, where his father and brother are trainers, told me NEVER buy a
horse off the track without an x-ray of the coffin bone.  I'm not too big
on prepurchase x-rays, but that's one case where I believe in them. 

 There is a lot to be said for getting a horse off the track.  They've
been handled daily by professionals.  They've seen a lot.  They're
already loading, used to hoses & water, and don't spend nearly as much
time going all out as you'd think. 

 Also, if you shop around while at the track, you may get a good deal on
a horse that's  not producing.  When a farm has 10 horses in Florida, and
they're based in Virginia, they don't won't to deal with getting him
home, and it's expensive to have him just standing around at the track. 
I saw some nice horses go cheap to someone who was willing to take them
away...of course that was a long time ago.  

Angie (who now likes to start them at 4...not 18 mo.)



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