Re: Our new standbred for endurance - Long

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@ici.net>]

Linda Flemmer <bluewolfranch@yahoo.com> said:

>We recently looked at some Standardbreds off the
>track.  Mike wanted a big, bold moving horse.  He
>found a horse that he described as having "loads of
>potential", an 8 yo 15.3H New Zealand-bred STB who was
>retired in favor of younger, faster horses at the
>trainer's...
>
>...This is a first for us - taking a horse
>whoi has a reasonable base of work and training him
>for endurance.

I find one of the intriguing things about taking an off-the-track
Standardbred into endurance is that they have a base of
long, slow distance in spades.  The standard at the
SB training track where I board my Morgan is at least
6 miles a day of jogging, day-in, day-out.  Imagine the
miles on an 8 year old.

And it is remarkable that this horse is still sound.  Harness
tracks tend to be extremely hard surfaces, *much* harder
than flat tracks, with a thin "cushion" of stone dust over
a hard-packed base like concrete.  Think of the bone and
soft tissue development this horse must have after all
the years of working on that kind of a surface at speed.

Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Massachusetts, USA