USEF says L-theanine prohibited in calmers

[luvmyhackney]

There are many variables on when that makes sense and doesn’t make sense to have a hard and fast rule around it.
I said something to a trainer once that had 5 horses tied to the rail for at least 3 hours on a hot 90* F day with the sun blaring down, fully tacked up, they were all sweating and stomping flies. Zero water around or offered for the multiple hours I was there.

I’m sure you have more sense than to do that in the heat of the day and would at least offer water occasionally.

[IPEsq]

I’m not saying it’s ideal to have a baby live on a circuit. But if you are doing WEC or something with a farm nearby, your young hunter might not be there all week or for weeks on end, but they are still at a rated show. They might ticket a week or two but, yes, they want results because it’s expensive and challenging to bring one along here, so yes, they also show. In Europe, at least in NL and DE, the low levels are judged and there isn’t as much emphasis on placing until higher levels. Many national shows are done ship in style no matter the level. And some trainers work out of barns that host home shows and take advantage of that to get more horses out, because no one wants to ship in and wait around all day between classes for different horses. None of this means that a horse who has been under saddle only a few months isn’t also going around at some recognized shows because some of them are. Others need more time or more affordable and accessible ways to get exposure, and it’s those who have more trouble and instead need calmers etc because it’s either expensive or unavailable to do it all the ideal right way for those horses sometimes.

[skydy]

My quibble is with the statement that a “few months if that” is what “most trainers” want to spend training a young horse. The negativity, lumping a few bad trainers someone may have seen and assuming that “most trainers” train that way, is not coming from a place of experience.

Anyone who has ever trained young horses knows that is untrue. There are many good young horse trainers. They prove themselves year after year by producing well trained youngsters, not by talking a good game and criticizing others.