Ridecamp: Re: [RC] More Thoughts- and how our rides appear to others

Amen,
I agree with you and your husband and your take on endurance riding.
Being an equine sports massage therapist, I see a lot of different horse
"worlds", and, as I am sure more of you know, endurance people, on the
whole, are the best with their horses.  They have to be.  I have been
starting to call the hunter/jumper show horses "pot belly pigs" lately
(of course BEHIND the owners' backs!!) due to their usually being out of
condition and overweight.  They've only got to run around the ring a
couple of times.  The race horses are kept boxed in stalls, all too often
24/7, while the endurance horses are "out" usually 24/7.  Enuf said.  I
find it interesting to hear a recent post begging us to stop a proposed
rodeo bill that checks the horses vet-wise.  Now, that post upset me ...
rodeos are nice to the horses??  Seems to me that endurance horses are
maintained and trained in the most natural way to "endure" their sport.

Karen



On Thu, 13 Jun 2002 14:02:38 EDT RhndLev@xxxxxx writes:
> I wanted to briefly address Roger's concern that elements of our 
> sport might 
> appear abusive to others.  My husband is not a horse person and is 
> one of the 
> most tendered hearted people I have ever met.  He's a vegetarian and 
> in 
> support of animal rights.  He has been to several rides with me, 
> including a 
> ride at Kanapolis were there were a couple of horses on IVs.  We 
> have also 
> been to Arabian and Quarter horse and Appaloosa shows, including 
> Scottsdale 
> and Nationals.  My husband is of the opinion that the show ring 
> world is much 
> more abusive to the horse than endurance is.  We were watching 
> western 
> pleasure, reining and cutting horse classes where horses came into 
> the ring 
> lame at the walk.  My husband wanted to know why the vets were 
> letting those 
> horses compete.  When I explained there were no vet judges and no 
> way to 
> disqualify those people from at least coming into the ring, he was 
> shocked.  
> 
> In regard to hazing, in particular, have you guys been to an Arabian 
> show and 
> seen what happens to those halter horses before they go into the 
> ring???  If 
> that's not cruelty, waving papers or hollering at a horse to get it 
> to trot 
> is not cruelty.
> 
> We have seen MANY more lame, abused, hazed horses at shows than I 
> believe 
> exist in endurance.  As an outsider, my husband tells me he is 
> convinced that 
> our sport is much better for the horse than any other we have seen.
> 
> Rhonda
> 
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=