This post made me think for a moment about the fact that many "regular" horses manage to exist in homes where they are subjected through mainly ignorance to average or poor feed practices, unsafe facilities, lack of health care, farrier care, uneducated conditioning habits, and/or unqualified training methods. I think it is safe to say that our sport is not any exception to this kind of thing. Further, an "event-oriented" organization is possibly not the best or even acceptable venue for decisions that SHOULD be long-term or even life time. Whiel it is a laudable pursuit - to place unwanted animals of any breed - into caring homes, it is a logn stretch to assume that those caring homes can more easily be found through thsi kind of approach. As I read the posts on this thread, I thought about our rule of never breeding orustallion to mares at rides, and yes, people do think that this is a fine plan (ostensibly because it saves THEM transport fee, mare care fees, etc). What it does is create a scenario for oru stallion in that he soon would not understand that at rides, we behave like a little gentleman and don't be thinking about procreation in its various possibilities:). Such permanent ideas stemming from a temporary occasion are not such a good idea. In the same kind of way, adopting an animal at a sporting event - wow - that is a very permanent decision at an inappropriate moment. I just believe that to do the very best for these animals would indicate that shooting from the hip decisions not be encouraged. Too many good-hearted people as it is take on these horses to the detriment of all concerned. This is a very caring idea - but it should be better thought out. IMHO
