Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

The thing that I find somewhat appalling at this whole LD bashing is we are 
worried about the wrong problem. Yes, I've had a very bad week having to spend
a lot of time fixing up a bunch of other peoples screws so I'm in a bad mood
to start with - but here goes. We don't crash horses in LD's. We very seldom
send a horse to a vet hospital on live support from an LD. I only know of
two cases in 12 years I've been around this sport that an LD horse has ended
up first on life support and then being transported to a vet hospital when
the vets got worried. Now compare that to 50's and 100's where we crash them
all too often. 
 
 At a recent 100 in the US we had one 8 out of 50 (that's about one in 7) 
horses entered hooked up to bags on life support.  The treatment vet was
scrambling to find enough fluids and one had to be sent off to a vet hospital
after stabilized. How about the Tevis a few years ago?  That's what bothers
me. In the SE we've seen all too many horses bagged with IV's this year. 
If we'd spend our energy trying to solve this problem rather than having
a semi-annual public flogging of LD's we ( and our horses ) would be a whole
lot better off IMHO.
 
 Truman
 
 Stephanie E Caldwell wrote:

>>A lot of people come out and try endurance and for whatever reason don't get hooked and don't show up after a season or two.

 

What I was trying to say is it's the same people, year after year, ride after ride, in the LDs, it's just that every season they have a different horse. I figured they were training the horse, and it would show up in 50's and 100's under another rider, but the horses just disapeared and the riders name appeared with another horse.

 

>>since the biggest grip I hear is running the legs of a 4 yo. I don't really think there are that many 4 yo's out there (at least in the SE) getting their legs run off in LD's.

 

I fell victim to overriding my horse at too young of an age, I didn't know how old she really was until about six months ago when I asked my vet to look at her teeth, since she was still growing. I was horrified to find out that she was just then around 4 - 5 years old. Did some checking and she was broke as a 14 month old. This horse has mild tendon problems from an injury as a 2 - 3 year old when she damaged a tendon, but otherwise she has no lasting effects that I know of right now. She's been sound for 15 months now, as long as we don't ride in sand. But, I don't think she would have held up soundness wise if I'd kept riding at the pace I was and the distance at her age. Time will tell if I damaged anything permanently... I'm hoping to do 50's next year in her 6ish year old year and start 100's when she's 7ish. What I wouldn't give to be able to look at registration papers and really know her age.

 

If you also look at the rides where you have 2-3 hour LD's you normally have 3 - 4 hour 50's.

 

Yep... But you sure don't have 6 hour hundreds that I've seen. Fastest 100 I saw was 9 hours and change.

 

I guess it all boils down to what your goals are. I've got a great training buddy, we get along great. With her first endurance horse she wanted to top ten in LD, she did, he ended up having soundness problems and he's a trail horse now with a family. Her new "baby", he's a 4 year old Arab she wants to do 50's and possibly 100's. To me endurance is being out there and riding with the horse, her welfare before mine. And, my goal is to do 100's, make it to the Pan Ams, National Championships, Tevis, etc.. All the big 100's, Not to wear my horse out riding 2 hour 25s.

 

Steph