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Re: [RC] the more money we come across, the more problems we see - desertrydr1Lisa said:For instance, most people know that these horses are very young. I'm not entirely sure that's true, even among horse people, much less the general public. Lots of horse sports have futurities for 3 yr olds. It's considered perfectly acceptable to start a horse under saddle before it's 2 and train hard for a futurity, then leave it lame before it even hits 8 or so. Sure it's not the same as a death, but the misery certainly lasts a lot longer. As to the general public, how are they supposed to know that racing 3 yr olds, even 2 yr olds is unacceptable? Except when one of these tragedies happens, there is no talk in the newspapers about the fact that the horses are considered too young for such strenuous training/sport. Most non-horse people don't know that a horse is not mature til after it's 5 years old. They don't know that starting a horse under saddle at 1 1/2 or 2 is like sending a 5 yr old kid off to work. There aren't that many horse sports where the horse is not expected to be fully trained and able to withstand the stresses of hard work until its past 5 years old. Even endurance rules allow 5 yr old horses to compete in 100 mile rides. jeri
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