and if you've read Stan Hirson's blog, http://www.hestakau p.com/, you will read where it's rare to see horses beyond their teens (I noticed this as well): Stan said:
. . . In Iceland I have heard people marvel that a horse of 18 is still going. And in one case, a horse that is 23 is still being ridden for round-ups. But the competition stallion is going to be ridden for a few years and then used for breeding. There is always a newer and younger horse coming!" This sounds like the typical professional horse world in America too. Where you need to start ther horse at 1 1/2 years old....get it going for competition, and by the time it is 4 or 5 , its old....time to sell to someone who wants to ride lightly. We do quite a few old performance horses here (Nu Cash sons and daughters , (a really big QH line), but they are 'old', have lameness issues way before 10. There is always another younger horse to work with. We have professioal trainers here who, in their world a 4 year old is old. no need to bother with them at that age..... I do not condone the attitude.....I am not sure where I stand with icetolts, except that I do not want to make a judgement on someone in regards of what they do with their horses, when it seems there are much more offensive things to target. Personally I would think that any horse in high end competion would suffer joint issues, or mabye injuries and those things would have an adverse effect on their long term soundness or productivity. So i question why tolting on ice for a short time with removable ice studs is so much worse than 3 day eventing, endurance riding, cross country, carraige driving etc..... Skye
