By Dr Jo Hamilton-Branigan

Veterinarians -It is prudent for us all to remember it is only as a result of strict veterinary control that the wider community tolerates the sport of endurance riding at all.

Veterinarians in Australia have traditionally worked hard to uphold high standards of care in what has been a largely a voluntarily capacity. It is important not to ostracize our vets, nor make them feel unwelcome or unappreciated, for without them and their commitment to horse welfare there would not be a sport.

We need to KEEP asking ourselves - How can we keep our vets on side and ENJOYING their involvement in the sport?

The Novice System - explaining some common misconceptions

- Why have Novice restrictions?
This system evolved in the early nineties and was largely devised to protect young +/- inexperienced horses i.e. to regulate the speed of inexperienced horses and riders entering the sport.

- Does it mean that Novice horses should be expected to travel at Novice pace?
No, although increasingly I talk to riders who expect their horses to be competing right up to the limit times as Novice horses and then expect to go faster once they graduate as Open/Yellow Book Horses. This was not how the system was envisaged or designed to work. It is in place to stop horses from going too fast too soon, not as a fail-safe guide to speed. Newer riders are often unaware that many experienced riders only ever ride at Novice speed or thereabouts on experienced horses. Perhaps we should change the current thinking by calling it "set" speed instead "novice".

- But, isn't my horse an experienced/seasoned horse when it achieves its Open/Yellow Book Status?
No, the properly prepared endurance horse (one you wish to compete on for a number of years), is ONLY ready to do the hard yards (distance and increased speed) after about three YEARS of preparation - see Hiliary Clayton's excellent text on "Conditioning Sport Horses". Given that a yellow book may be gained over a 3-month period - this horse is nowhere near a fully seasoned/mature endurance horse.

- What is a seasoned horse?
A seasoned horse is a horse that has successfully progressed through three seasons of PATIENT conditioning. So, if you begin to condition your horse as a 4 year old you would not expect that it to be a mature campaigner until it is at least a seven year old. This is providing you have no set-backs during this time.

In all reality it is probably most appropriate to lightly work/start most endurance horses when they are 4 year old, spell them after 6 weeks for as long again and let them grow. Bring them in again for another 6 weeks work them slowly, educate them with some flat work and manners, and spell them again. Your horse is ready to start LSD (Long Slow Distance) conditioning when he has reached his fifth birthday. It is very important to remember that the horse is not skeletally MATURE UNTIL it is seven years of age. Arabian bred horses mature more slowly than many other breeds. Horses should not be expected to approach optimal performance until, at the very least, after their seventh birthday.

Age of Horses
Perhaps the real question we need to consider is - when is our endurance horse physically and mentally mature?

After considering this question for quite a while I contacted Sharon May-Davis - anatomist and muscle therapist and had a lengthy discussion on the musculo-skeletal maturation and degeneration typical to endurance horses.

It is pretty apparent from the literature, bony evidence and the experience of many good horse people - that our horses aren't fully mature in mind and body (and one could argue soul - i.e. sense of well being) until they reach their seventh birthday.

SEVEN is a horse's lucky number.

Up until this time great care must be taken and the process should be largely educative and building.

The spine of the horse is still ossifying right up until seven years of age - this is why you sometimes see horses you thought to be mature suddenly grow and develop in these later years. So you can imagine the damage you are be doing as regards weight carrying on younger individuals. SMD commonly finds many degenerative changes associated with the spine of young horses - over-riding spinous processes (the tips or spines of the vertebrae) from T10(thoracic vertebrae of the chest) to L4 (lumbar vertebrae of the loins) being common and changes and ossification -particularly under the weight bearing areas of the saddle.

Bony, performance restrictive changes in the caudal spinal area are also common, partially due to the lesser number of vertebrae in the lumbar area of the many Arabian bred horses (5cf6) BUT particularly when horses are started and run hard before being fully mature.

Note also that the long bones - upper forearm/hindlimb are not mature until at least 4 years of age and some areas of the pelvis and shoulder mature later. So, unless you are disciplined enough to only attempt very light work with a very light rider it is not really to the horse's benefit to even be started much before 41/2 to 5 years of age - let alone compete.

-What about the racing industry?
The racing thoroughbred has inadvertently been selecting over time for early maturing horses. Hence thoroughbred horses do tend to develop more quickly than the average Arabian. However, despite this early growth the wastage in the racing industry is huge - the majority of horses do not even make the track. Why? Some suffer growth related problems - OCDs, or other orthopaedic developmental disease etc. Those that do make it to the track often do not stand up to the work-load.

The average career span of a racehorse is probably three years at best. A horse over the age of six may be referred to as "aged". The horse may not have even had a chance to be fully grown/mature and it is already aged.

-Why do we dare to be different?
Endurance should be about horse management. There are many elements to endurance riding - being competitive is only one of them. The ability to bring a horse on, train it from scratch, keep it sound, do the hard yards and complete every event should be far more important than winning. If you do all this and your horse has ability then competitiveness will eventually come, but you should always concentrate on doing the basics properly and not get distracted by the hype or glory factor. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to give yourself (and your horse) realistic personal goals. Often realistic goals for even the experienced campaigner might not be so much winning as achieving a personal best or even just clocking up distance at slower speeds.

Not everyone can finish at the front of the field but everyone can be a winner!

You will find that many of the old school endurance riders think of vetting out as a blight on their horse management skills, not so much as an inherent risk of traveling at speed. In the past some of our most respected riders have been those that consistently finish and just keep clocking up the miles.

Recently I was privileged enough to view a set of radiographs (xrays) of the limbs of one of THE GREAT endurance achievers- Jackson Browne at age 20 years. Nine Quilty buckles and 11 000+ kilometers and to his owner's - Olga Bartlett - credit those x-rays were faultless - showing no detectable degenerative change - he might as well have been a 2 yr old! Jack had been in competition for nearly FOURTEEN seasons.

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