Ridecamp: [RC] musings re "the good old days"

All of this is JMO, so everybody feel free to hit delete now.  I keep
hearing comments here and there about how in the old days, horses turned in
wonderful performances with nothing more than a handful of hay, no
electrolytes, etc etc.  The way you hear it from some folks (and I'm not
picking on anyone specific whatsoever), the horses of old all danced their
ways down the trail without hardly breaking a sweat, everybody always
finished, everything was ducky.  So the conclusion there to be made is why
do we need all this new research, all these electrolyte formulations, all
these new things when everyone did so well in the old days?

Maybe I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but I'm not so sure things
were so wonderful from the horse's perspective.  I've talked to vets that
talk about lame or thumping horses being allowed to go on that these days
would be pulled in a heartbeat (and saw the same thing for myself).  You
sure didn't hear about commonplace nine hour 100s and sub four-hour 50s
(though maybe there were...Bob?) back then.  I suspect there weren't as many
rides available and except for the trailer race crowd, horses got more
off-time between rides instead of riding back to back top ten rides week
after week.  I know of more than one horse that won a big, hard 100-mile
ride back then without anything more than a little hay and water, was
supposedly "retired" but in reality had so little kidney function left he
couldn't handle anything more than standing in a pasture looking exhausted
for the rest of his life.  I think it was alot more commonplace then anyone
let on, and I think that's *still* more commonplace than we're admitting.

I also think the endurance crowd is different than it was a ways back.  I
didn't start hanging around until the late 80's, but even I've noticed a LOT
more relatively inexperienced owners and riders showing up---no flames on
any of them, but alot of people are showing up that possibly don't
understand the value of LSD, that peeing coffee doesn't just mean he needs a
drink and that it's not normal for a horse to do that funny hiccuping thing.

 I'm not saying that across the board, endurance riders were better horseman
20 years ago---but alot of them were.  And a better horseman can "get away"
with a lot more than a novice rider might.  Maybe the novice rider needs the
extra benefits of better el'yte formulations, better feeds, better saddles.
Maybe just to do better themselves, but more importantly, maybe to help the
horse avoid injury better.

And I guess my other thought (which is still JMO) is that yeah, most horses
could probably survive endurance just fine without anything more than hay
and water during a hot, hard ride.  But are they doing BETTER than if they
aren't given better feeds, better tack, better elyte formulas?  I don't
think so, not in most cases if the innovations are used right (there are
always exceptions).  Alot of riders back then also rode in blue jeans and
"survived" just fine, but boy, I'm sure happy there's such a thing as lycra
tights these days.  Am I gonna ride in blue jeans today because that's how
they used to ride and gee, they seemed to do okay?  Not freakin' likely.

And if that's the case, then what possible excuse could anyone have for not
making the extra effort to use new knowledge and provide the very best of
care to any endurance horse before, during or after a ride?  How dare any
rider not do or at least consider using every available tool just because,
"well, this stuff wasn't around thirty years ago and they still finished
rides..."  Horses died or were injured back then because of things that
weren't known, and horses will continue to die or be injured today if their
riders don't learn everything they can about their horse and what the new
information is telling us.

To do otherwise is irresponsible to the horse, and they deserve much better.

JMO.

Susan G





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