The other side of this
coin is the plethora of studies indicating that bone denisty is best built in
the horse from 18 months to 2.5 years of age. So, while I want to stay off
my horse's back until at least age 4, I want to be putting LSD miles on him, and
as Deb mentioned in her article, teaching lots of stuff from the ground.
We have evidence that those horses raised on the side of a mountain self-LSD,
and stay sound longer as a result. This assumes they survive to age 4 out
on the side of the mountain, which is also a Good argument for natural selection
of brains and sense. But if you have your beloved foal in a paddock at
home, pony, pony, pony that baby from about 18 months of age
onward.
Alison A. Farrin
-----Original Message----- From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of
KimFue@xxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2006 8:07
AM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] EN Article -
Lysanne & Cindy
My purpose for writing about Deb Bennett's EN
article was not to make anyone feel bad or guilty or feel they are going to
get slammed if they take a 4 year old to a competition. I just found the
article very interesting and learned something new that has changed the way I
look at my young horses. It is just one more bit of information we
have when it comes to managing our horses. Everyone can use that
information in the way they see best for their horses or their
program. I am the first to admit that I never knew that some of
the structural parts of the horse take so long to finish growing. I just
thought it would be an interesting topic on EN as I wondered how many riders
out there realized these facts and I thought it would be an interesting
discussion specifically about endurance horses because we spend so much more
time in the saddle then other disciplines even when horses are first
introduced to LDs. I can't think of very many other horse
sports where a young horse may be have a rider on their
back for three hours blocks of time in training/conditioning or
ridden in competition for up to 6 hours. I found it interesting that it
is fairly common to have 4 year olds competing in eventing. I find that
the technical aspects of that sport, the jumping and the duration
would put even more stress on a young horse than endurance. When
do you have to start training an eventing horse for competition at 4 years old
to be capable even at the lowest levels of cross country, jumping, and
dressage?
Kim Fuess
AERC #6648
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