Re: Fw: Re: Re: Long Slow Distance

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

 Should any horse be asked to go 100
> > miles in a 24 hour period??  How much damage is done to the very best >
> conditioned horses competing at high rates of speed in 100 miles and /or
50
> > mile races?  Some horses hold up for many >thousands of miles competing
race after race...MOST >don't.

I agree, everything is relative.  Some horses can romp through a ride, if
properly conditioned, ridden and managed throughout, assuming the horse and
rider had the right building blocks to start with.  Obviously, other horses
have no business even thinking about trying.

One of the questions we've been trying to figure out in research is whether
or not some horses sustain permanant damage after performing at certain
levels.  My gut feeling is that a significant number do, and I don't mean
the obviously overridden horses, I mean the ones that are at face value
managed well and ridden sensibly, if very competitively.  I think there's
alot more stress placed on *all* of these horses than we're giving them
credit for.


 Apparently the fellow who took his young horse
> on
> > the Death Valley ride...and LSD'd   the whole thing...was
> experienced...and
> > believed he was doing right by his horse...did that horse experience any
> > more cumulative stress then the well conditioned horse who went fast for
> all
> > days of the DVE?  I doubt it.

Again, I agree.  I was chatting privately with a friend and we both agreed
that the horse in question probably sustained less overall stress and damage
having been basically handwalked through several 50 miles days at a
multiday, then would an equally novice horse racing balls to the walls and
"winning" their first time out, even at a single-day LD distance.  Not meant
as a slam to limited distance rides, only an observation that speed kills at
any distance.

JMO.
Susan G