Re: Jumping to Conclusions?

["hn.heather" <hn.heather@wanadoo.fr>]

I've also heard it said that "A horse has only so many downhill miles
in his front legs, and you should save those for the rides."  It's
offered as a rationale for not working a horse hard downhill in
training.

I consider that a fallacy.  The object of training and conditioning is
to train the horse to carry himself better and to build up the horse's
body to withstand the demands of competition

Sure, I would agree with all this.  I think the point some of us were trying
to make (well I was anyway) was that an excess of anything is a bad thing.
I school my horse at home so he can cope adequately with downhill work but I
don't do endless downhill work in training.
I'm talking about a confirmed 100-miler here but I've never seen the sense
in doing endless miles in training with an experienced horse.  I mean, you
don't prepare for a 100-miler by doing 100 miles at home, do you?  Or do
you?
I do believe that endurance horses have only so many miles in them so I
don't see the point in using up those miles at home.
Actually I've got off the point here so I'll hush up now.
Heather