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Heidi, you are right on with many of your comments
in reply to Susan's post. I was there too- but in another part of the
country, and we too had many excellent horsemen (both genders) who rode fast and
smart. We fed grass and hay and always grain at checks (though I remember
when Matthew recommended NOT feeding grain at checks!!!!) We did give
e'lytes, but usually the type found in feed stores - nothing specialized, and I
am sure we never thought of giving the huge doses we do now.
I personally rode over 15 different horses from
1980 - 1990 ( I rode for other people) and all went on to do between 1000 and
3000 miles during their careers. The advent of the 64 pulse and the gate
to hold vet checks has helped to secure the health of our horses more than
anything else, and you're right about another thing - the quality of horses was
better 20 years ago - you didn't see offset cannons, low heels, such long
pasterns and cannons, and such high tailsets - just to name a few things that
bug me. At any given ride there were more really tough rider/horse
combinations ready to really roll than there are now.
I am not saying all was rosy in our sport 20 years
ago, and I will not go back to wearing jeans to ride in (!) but there were many
many good horsemen and tough horses back then who did well despite the lack of
super charged feeds, supplements, e'lytes and $2000 saddles - and I believe some
of those teams could whip hiney in the field today.
Laura Hayes #2741 (competing over half my life,
now)
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