09/09/08 Vetting politicians and horses

Vetting a Candidates and Horses. There have always been connections between politics and horses, think of campaign lingo .&the dark horse, neck and neck in the polls, front runner& but the 2008 presidential campaign will be remembered best for the equestrian term "vetting". I'm Susan Allen stay tuned on today's American Rancher and I will be back with more on politics and horses. &When horse people say a horse has to "vet" they simply mean that the animal, like a presidential or V.P. candidate must past a series of predetermined tests to prove it is fit for its job. A Veterinarian will examine a horse's confirmation, bone structure, agility, even blood to look for flaws and predict performance. Age is always a factor but interestingly with the exception of racing most other aggressive disciplines like jumping, roping, and gaming are dominated by older experienced horses rather than unpredictable unproven novices. We could learn from that! Sometimes during the vetting process the animals pedigree will come up, performance records of the sire and dam, even grandparents play a crucial role in the success of the performance horse. It would be unthinkable to buy an expensive horse without researching it's mother yet one presidential candidate has passed the vet check without any parental scrutiny while the other vice presidential candidate has had her whole family line dissected & Whats up with that! Maybe we should apply the same standards to picking our politicians that we do when buying a good horse. Just a thought!