They really ought to wait until horses are three before putting them through any hard work, in any sport. Their growth plates aren't fully closed in any breed until they're three, and in some breeds later. Their legs are so easy to ruin, especially since there's no muscles from the knees/hocks down to protect those precious bones and tendons. (Hence the leg wraps). Unfortunately, these owners spend all that money on the horses and want to get what they can out of them ASAP to make some of that money back. What a waste! I get a little ruffled about the whole thing. Racing pushes too hard, and so do western trainers. A lot of western pleasure horses are forced to do too much before they're developmentally ready and are ruined before they're ten, with hip problems and leg problems because of the artificially slow gates expected of them. IMHO, no horse should be pushed before they're three.
Worse yet is that a lot of racehorses are started in their training as long yearlings (late in their yearling year). They're still babies!
Okay, sorry about that. Getting off my soapbox. Some aspects of the horse industry really upset me, particularly those people who feel that a horse has to make a return on their investment ASAP, rather than when each individual horse is developmentally ready to handle the stress.
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Date: 2008-12-13 06:52 pm (UTC)Worse yet is that a lot of racehorses are started in their training as long yearlings (late in their yearling year). They're still babies!
Okay, sorry about that. Getting off my soapbox. Some aspects of the horse industry really upset me, particularly those people who feel that a horse has to make a return on their investment ASAP, rather than when each individual horse is developmentally ready to handle the stress.