Re: Basic Conditioning

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> So why do you think that is? Why are so many horses pulled for lameness?
Last
> year I was sitting at the vet check and noticed an awful lot of horses
coming
> in lame on a trail that was good so I know it was not the trail.
>
> Maria


Because cardiovascular and muscle can be conditioned very quickly, while
conditioning of bone, tendon and ligament takes 2-3 years of slow,
consistent, gradually building work---which not everyone does, either
through impatience or just not knowing.  So they ride the horse until his
recoveries look good and assume he's "conditioned" for whatever distance,
when in fact the legs are *not* necessarily ready for the task at hand
(depending on the severity of the task).

Just an example, I have a young horse with a resting heart rate of 24 and
phenomenol recoveries, even though he is just barely starting his LSD with
Karen Chaton this past August (I have discovered that the hardest part about
training a young horse is actually finding a trainer who doesn't think their
job is finished once they've cashed your check and then declare bankruptcy
when you disagree with their work ethic, but oh well, he's with Karen now
and doing great).  Even though the horse has a heart the size of an elephant
and according to his metabolic recoveries, he *should* be ready to go right
on out and go for glory, is he really ready?  No way, he has a long, slow
program ahead of him before his legs can cash the checks his heart and
enthusiasm are writing.  If he started doing 50s now, he'd be finished in a
year or two.  If he goes on with his LSD and build the bone and dense tissue
slowly, then he has a very good future ahead of him.

I'm off to the airport (again), see y'all next week.

Susan G