Lameness

[FjordBCRF]

I fully agree with all this.

@FD - in a perfect world, I’d find a place for the 4YO that he can be turned out 24/7 for a year. Let him grow, figure out your vet/medical stuff and let him heal. Choosing to push him through this time when he’s not at his best may make or break his and your daughters potential success. Thats part of getting a horse that young.

Get your daughter on some high high level horses to ride during that time. Let her spend that time honing in her upper level skills while doing as much bonding with FD as possible during that time. That would set them BOTH up for some great potential!

[ATXmom]

Sorry to keep hammering this, but if he is head-bobbing lame, you need to have the vet come isolate it (while he is lame!) so you know how to treat!

[FD]

I am having a meeting with the vet in 25 minutes.

[Bristol_Bay]

One other thing that may have been mentioned here, is that there is a really good reason why people keep their horses’ names off this board. If this horse needs to be sold, this thread will still be here with all the lameness details. While honesty in horse sales is a good thing, there is such a thing as too much transparency.

If I were you, I would change my screen name, delete the video links and ask the mods help on editing these things out from the thread.

[Scribbler]

@Bristol_Bay

@Scribbler

My point is not that there’s no young high level dressage riders anywhere ever.

Baloney. How would you even know that?

Steffens Peter’s father bought him a horse when he was 16. That horse was Udon.

https://www.spetersdressage.com/steffen-peters

As others have noted, there are exceptions. There are young adults with lots of money, there are young adults whose parents were trainers, there are young adults who found the right trainers early on, and there are young adults from Germany where the dressage culture is much more prevalent. Steffens Peters was born in Germany and competing internationally at 15, before he relocated to the USA. All of this is exponentially more expensive than it was in 1970.

Obviously some young people even today are on a fast track to riding high level dressage. I would say in the USA you would find them in the FEI Young Riders series. This doesn’t seem to be on the radar of the current dressage trainer and barn. You would need a whole other program, trainer and horse to get into that world.

By and large if we look at the ages of the Olympic dressage riders they are not 18, they are not 21. They are not on their first horse. They do not launch from modest trainers with modest budgets.

My whole point here was to inject a dose of reality and details into the OPs scenario. I think there is about zero chance this horse and rider pair are going to the Olympics, because I think there is about zero chance they are going to be racking up points in international FEI competition in 5 years. How is there any reasonable pipeline to being on the list of the 4 highest ranked American riders?

My point about age is that unlike many Olympic sports, equestrian and especially dressage is not a youth sport. It’s not gymnastics. Or track and field. Or swimming. It’s not a peak early and retire sport.

[Bristol_Bay]

@Scribbler

I think there is about zero chance this horse and rider pair are going to the Olympics, because I think there is about zero chance they are going to be racking up points in international FEI competition in 5 years.

I must have missed where the OP said this was their Olympic horse.

[K_VanOlst]

@Bristol_Bay

I must have missed where the OP said this was their Olympic horse.

You did miss that post.

@FD

You might judge this, but my daughter’s dream is to go to the Olympics with him. We shared that with the seller.

[Bristol_Bay]

Thank you.

[rothmpp]

I missed some of what you posted before the delete - but I asked before if you’ve done a extensive blood panel on this horse since he’s been in the states. Have you? Sometimes what we spend thousands of dollars on blocking, xrays, ultrasounds, etc… actually turns out to be something more systemic.

I do hope you have taken some of this advice to heart and try to get this young horse some real time off - even if it means moving to a rehab farm for a bit for the turnout that it sounds like he needs.

And - please, please see if you can get your daughter some lessons/lease on a schoolmaster. Forgive me - but the few vids I watched of her riding - she’s a lovely young rider and will be a very nice rider with some miles on her, but she’s green and the horse is young. They will benefit in the long run if she’s got some more tools available to her that usually only comes from miles and lessons on a horse that has been there, done that.

What’s the saying? “green on green usually equals black and blue”. I am by no means saying she is a bad rider, but she is not at the level that will have her seeing the Olympics in 4 or 8 years. I love to see enthusiasm from young riders, but it is easy to get discouraged without more realistic goals for her in the next couple years to aim for.

Start by getting the horse as sound as possible. Whether that is 2 months or 12 months, if she’s constantly chasing a lameness issue, she’s going to get frustrated very quickly.

I know $70k is a large amount of money, but it’s a pittance compared to what you will have to spend to even get her NAYC competitive. I have no idea what your finances look like, but with a teen you need to be prepared to determine just how much money you’re willing to spend. I can think of at least 5 teen riders from my area whose parents went into substantial debt only to have the teen give up riding by the time they reach 18, And every single one of them imagined they’d be on the senior US team by the time they finished high school.

[RhythmNCruise]

@FD

You might judge this, but my daughter’s dream is to go to the Olympics with him. We shared that with the seller.

There’s nothing wrong with having big dreams and goals, but always keep in mind that the horse doesn’t share those dreams and our priority has to be making sure that they are happy, healthy horses first. Our ambition has to take a major backseat to the welfare of this living, breathing animal that has no interest in the Olympics or anything else beyond being a horse. It’s much too early to make him carry the burden of such high aspirations. He’s a baby. He’s still growing and maturing. The slower and more careful you are with him now, the more likely he’ll be to remain sound as he comes of age and begins moving up the levels. To compete at the Olympic level, he has to be extremely strong and sound. Let that be the reason for allowing him to just be a horse for now. It will pay off later on.

[bingbingbing]

Not surprising, the horse’s online ad is gone and he is now off of the seller’s website. He was on their Sold page.

[Joanne]

@bingbingbing

Not surprisingly, the horse’s online ad is gone and he is now off of the seller’s website. He was on their Sold page.

I was just looking at the sold page about 3 hours ago. Nice horse. Hope everything works out with him.

[rothmpp]

@RhythmNCruise

There’s nothing wrong with having big dreams and goals, but always keep in mind that the horse doesn’t share those dreams and our priority has to be making sure that they are happy, healthy horses first.

Excellent point.

I am long time friends with someone on the short list for Paris. This horse isn’t the one they first imagined might get them this far, this is about 20 horses later. And not even one that they expected to be elite international level when they started with this particular horse. A couple horses ago was the one they thought had real international potential, on video/paper/and as a young horse certainly presented with the potential talent, but as RNC said - the horse doesn’t know or care what the owners and riders think they should be able to do.

[rothmpp]

@Joanne

@bingbingbing

Not surprisingly, the horse’s online ad is gone and he is now off of the seller’s website. He was on their Sold page.

I was just looking at the sold page about 3 hours ago. Nice horse. Hope everything works out with him.

Me, too. Which precipitated my comments above about the green on green. The video on the sales page came from a professional young horse rider. They know how to get the absolute most out of a horse for sale video snippets and have been doing it for years. OP’s daughter, while a lovely rider, is a long way away from every getting a ride on that horse to look like that. And so many of those German young horses sold this way are pushed so hard so young that they get mentally and physically fried. Which may be some of the lameness issues with this particular horse.

[Manni01]

Reading this post makes my head shake….i wish you were right…. Come to a Germany and you will see that riding is totally a youth sport……. In Germany it is not supported at all that adults are competing at shows . Everything is about the youth……

[fivestrideline]

Scribbler means you don’t age out of riding, so it’s not like OP’s child has until she’s ~18 or 21 or whatever to be an Olympic hopeful. Unlike gymnastics or figure skating, for example. It’s a youth sport, but not a youth ONLY sport. I believe equestrian has or tends to have the oldest athletes in the Games and the oldest average age, just due to the fact that one can ride (edit: competitively, at the top levels) until they physically cannot any longer!

[fivestrideline]

@rothmpp

I am long time friends with someone on the short list for Paris.

While we are talking about it, I watched a (non-horsey) interview with a rider that posited it can take $500k a year in expenses to campaign for consideration for an Olympic selection. I wonder if this is an average sum, or just a good round number for the non-equestrian interview. I’m aware there’s likely no limit to what one can spend, but I am lightly curious what one might expect to spend, assuming the horse is already acquired/syndicated/etc.

[Scribbler]

@fivestrideline

@rothmpp

I am long time friends with someone on the short list for Paris.

While we are talking about it, I watched a (non-horsey) interview with a rider that posited it can take $500k a year in expenses to campaign for consideration for an Olympic selection. I wonder if this is an average sum, or just a good round number for the non-equestrian interview. I’m aware there’s likely no limit to what one can spend, but I am lightly curious what one might expect to spend, assuming the horse is already acquired/syndicated/etc.

You’re going to be flying the horse around the world along with trainers and grooms and staying in hotels

[enjoytheride]

Adults don’t compete at shows in Germany?

Equestrian sports are more about the long game, while we have younger riders competing at higher levels it is not uncommon to see adults into and well past middle age competing at the highest levels. In fact, it’s the norm. It’s because there’s so much more to learn as a rider, and you don’t need a prepubescent’s body to do it.

[anonevent]

Also, I think they meant that this horse’s expected lifespan is probably not likely to line up with Olympic goals, since OP wrote that the child wants to be in the Olympics on this horse.