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Originally Posted by Round Pen
I have another take on the durability issue. By no means am I saying that anyone here is wrong in there opinion but here is another twist in the durability discussion.
I have dealt with well over a 1,000 yearlings probably more like 1,500 in the last 10 years. Breaking and training them for the races and sales. And one of the biggest problems I see is that the vast number of horses are what I deem as "Hot Housed" from the time they Are weanlings until they reach the races.
And by Hot Housed I mean a young horse never sees a paddock and is constantly kept in being readyed for another sale. Just take a look at Keeneland today when do you think the last time one of the horses that went through the ring today got a chance to run around in a paddock. I can assure you it was several months ago.
Young horses need to be outside running around playing hard having fun and the number one reason is developing. Young horses now adays don't get a chance to grow up.
Even When we are breaking young horses here at the farm now We bring them in first thing break them train them and then turn them .back out in a paddock.
I have always believed that the number one way to keep a horse sound is to have a great foundation and that starts when they are born.
Round Pen
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Good point. And if you pile on intensive training to get a lot of them ready for the 2 year old sales after they have been "hot housed" then you should hardly be shocked when a lot of them turn out to have problems. Most of the problems of todays "fragile" horses are man made.