Re: RC: Breeders are horse owners too

[Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>]

At 04:21 PM 4/23/00 -0700, Kat wrote:
> endurance prospects (which, face it, that is
> what any young horse is, no matter what its pedigree) 

Kat - I absolutely have to disagree.  Not all young horses are
endurance prospects!  Certain breeds are not realistically suitable,
certain conformation just won't make it, and attitude counts tool. 
If someone shows me a Clysdale foal & calls it an endurance prospect
I'd laugh myself silly.  Same with the offspring of certain lines of
QH with tiny feet, or certain lines of show Arabians - it would be
patently impossible for me to consider such horses endurance prospects
and keep a straight face.  

As I see it, one of the big differences between my viewpoint and some
others is that I don't think that just being able to waddle down the
trail for a few miles once in a horse's lifetime is equivalent to being
an endurance horse.  My definition of an endurance prospect is a
horse that has a high chance of completing a full career of long distance
mileage.  Not all horses have that chance & it can be seen when
they're young.  So just because it's a horse doesn't give it the
right to be called an endurance prospect.  Just like every horse
isn't a dressage prospect, either.  Both terms have been misused,
but that doesn't make it right.  I firmly believe that real
endurance prospects - not trail horses, but endurance horses - are not so
easily found.  Lif

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