Endurance and Lameness

[Lauren Horn <4horn@home.com>]

Is it just me or does it seem that it really is an achievement and
rarity to have a good horse who keeps going and going and going season
after season? I've been beset with lameness problems and have friends
whose horses have been effected from suspensory to sesamoid to joint
problems. I'm beginning to feel that it is REALLY HARD to get going in
this sport. That it is a rare horse indeed who can handle the
performance stress that endurance puts on it, and I'm not talking about
going fast and hard, I know these people went slow and easy with their
horse.

Has their been a study as to which lamenesses are the most prevalent
with endurance conditioning? Hocks, joints, tendons??? 

I now know how IMPORTANT it is to breed athletes.


Lauren