In a message dated 5/29/2003 6:39:14 PM Mountain Daylight Time, Trailrite@xxxxxxx writes:
I'm not sure that the concern is metabolic for 4 year olds. I think people are more concerned about legs and joint wear for the overall lifetime of the horses future. Hard work in an early state of conditioning is hard at any age and just remember no matter what age these horses are...it takes 6-18 months of conditioning for bone and soft tissiue to meet the speeds of a fast ride. So to meet this for a 4 year old the horse would have to be started into a conditioning program at the age of 3 years old.
Just food for thought....
Good "cookin", Tammy...my concerns, well-stated. As a sidenote, I saw some wonderful horsemanship at last weeks Black Hills Limited Distance Rides, both days! Folks were really tuned-in to their mounts.
---Frank
