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[RC] Old mares and their foals - JonniDiane posted: >>> What's the name of the horse you rode with and how old did the owner say it's dam was and can we verify that?<<< Sure, if my little one rat study is that important to "verify", the horse was "Thunders Coming", and his dam was 22 when she had him.(I was there when he was born. BIG healthy colt) She would have been bred back for the next year, but upon palpation, they could feel the melanoma tumors inside the mare, along with the ones she had on the outside, so it was time she called it quits. Maybe the reason this colt has done well enough in the sport is that both of his parents did endurance, with his sire racking up about 15,000 AERC miles over the years. Maybe the good genetics for the sport out weighed the fact the mare had some age on her when she foaled. While the age of the dam is something you personally consider when looking for an endurance horse, I personally would not put as much weight on that as I would on conformation, genetics etc. But, someone asked what was important to everyone when picking an endurance horse, and that is what is important to YOU. Some may agree, some may not, and we have both given opinions on the matter. And if we are going to do Google searching, I did find that some older mares can have very successful off spring in the racing world. Armbro Flight was 23 when Armbro Goal, her 13th foal, was born. She is the oldest mare ever to produce a Hambletonian winner. (harness horses for those who are unfamiliar) Again, I guess just another "one rat study". I'm sure you could punch the mares name in some where on line to "verify" that if it is important to you. Horses who are really, really successful at this sport are fewer than those who are "just OK" at it. We can take all the success stories, and the failure stories, and guess at the reason one failed, and one succeeded. I'm sure we can find that horses with poor conformation that have really done well, and those who were awesome to look at, and perfect to our eye for the sport, turn out to be horrible at distance riding. Same with foals from older mares. As noted, some can do well, and in your case, you had one that did not do well. But, for both, was it the "older mare", or something else that made one horse better than the other? Choosing a horse for this sport can be a crap shoot. We can only take the knowledge we have, and our OWN preferences, and try to pick a horse WE feel will suit OUR needs. And those needs vary from rider to rider. The back of the pack rider may not want the same things in a horse as one who wants to race to win. Some put personality higher on a list than conformation, while others don't care about a personality, as long as the horse can do the sport. Again, different parameters for different riders. If we all wanted the exact same thing in a horse, then there would not be such a variety of horses out there to choose from. Jonni =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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