Former pro athletes are usually only “pasture sound.”
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We will have to disagree here. I see the same horses month after month, year after year, running around events. A careful campaign of long and short formats, dropping a level to keep the horse happy in it’s job, as needed, building up fitness as needed, resting them as needed. I watched Badminton, world, Olympic horses with ears pricked looking for their fence just this past weekend. I do agree that years ago a horse could do one Badminton, one Burghley and then retire to go hunting. Now horses win multiple events at the top level. And as this is the Hunter/jumper rather than Eventing, same goes for Show Jumpers. E.G. Big Star won Gold at two Olympics, which takes a lot of jumping. He was given sufficient time off to recover from an injury.
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