"Sandy
Bolinger" <bolinger@bigsky.net> said:>This is endurance related as I just had a reiner friend inform me that he
>thought endurance was asking way too much of a horse. I was so appalled
>that he would say such a thing coming from his equine sport of choice that I
>was speechless! So I've been thinking about it...recalling a recent thread
>on ride camp about making a horse trot in circles..and I started thinking
>about these reining and cutting horses that are put into full fledged
>training as 2 year olds...doing endless circles, stops, turns etc. Not to
>mention the two year old thoroughbreds...Seems to me the potential for
>permanent damage is greatest in these sports that ask so much of the young
>horses...BY FAR! I'm also always amazed at the depth of knowledge within
>the endurance community as a whole...and am equally amazed at the lack of
>knowledge in some of the other "disciplines." When I first started
>endurance about 13 years ago, I thought I knew allot about horses...now,
>even with everything I've learned in the past few years, I realize that the
>more I learn, the more I find I don't know!...Anyway...I'm just babbling on
>here...glad, as always, that this is my sport of choice and not one of the
>other ones that are, in every sense of the word, abusive to the horse.
Not to be difficult, but the intriguing thing about questions of
this sort is that *everyone* comes to exactly the same conclusion
about their own discipline. I've always been curious as to whether
there is any way to break through this particular mental barrier.
Never found one.
Linda B. Merims
lbm@naisp.net
Massachusetts, USA