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

Well Susan, you mentioned my name and now you are in for it.

I agree with much of what you say and disagree with some of
it as well. Yes we had the sub four hour fifties and a few
nine hour 100's but they were not the norm. We did have
competitors that were better horsemen. Riders that treated
the horse as a horse. And I feel we would have done better
if we had understood some of the advances we have now.

But the horsemen were in the majority then where as the
competing riders are the majority now. When I see day after
day, messages asking "is my horse ready for a fifty?" I
shudder. If the rider does not know how in hell could anyone
else know?

I cringe when the questions are about high level feeds. The
feeding programs only a top competitor should be thinking
about and then only to peak for an extra important ride. And
these questions are most likely from an also ran back of the
pack finisher.

I think we winnowed out the less than satisfactory horses
back then. If they did not make a fair endurance horse they
were sold, put out to pasture or retired in some other
manner. (.38?) The riders did not waste time on "rescue
horses" to have a feel good time.


And yes, some horses did break down from over riding but a
great many went on to thousands of miles. You look at those
horses with over 3000 miles and you will find most are not
new horses nor are they young horses. If you studied them
very carefully you might just  find that they are the horses
treated as horses and not filled with the latest goodest and
highest high test go fast products.

As for the research, Good research is very necessary. Poor
research causes more damage than the good research can
overcome.

Bob

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Susan
Garlinghouse
Sent: Monday, June 03, 2002 12:57 PM
To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [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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 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
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