Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Completion rate of Masters Series

Can't get much more sand than living on a big sandbar called Florida:-).
 What is amazing to me is we don't have many tendon problems with our horses
here. They are born in sand, start out in sand, they ride every training
ride in sand and by the time they are 7 or 8 yo they have tendons of steel.

I do think you hit the nail on the head- "Speed Kills." The "price of poker"
has gone up at the WEG. If you want to place you are going to have to run
it hard. The faster you go the higher the risk.

Truman

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani wrote:

Yes but then in soft sand like we have you get SO many more tendon injuries...also lameness. Been riding in sand and on hard packed for 10 years now and I'm sorry...I can't see horses keeping up that speed and staying sound race after race. I work my horses on sand to work on tendons and hard pack for the concussive force to build up calcium in the bone....but not at high speed. I want to keep mine for a few years. My soundest horse is over 27. But it's interesting to note how many returns there are or are not among the equine partners listed for the WEG.

 

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.ratbusters.net

 

 

 

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Under these conditions the peak loading on the foot and leg are greater than for a horse going at 8 mph in soft footing and it is peak loading that causing things to break.  I would expect on high profile rides (read this to mean races) on flat hard footing, the foot and legs ability to deal with the high peak loading may give out (resulting in a lameness pull) before metabolic issues arise. And conversely on a course with soft footing the foot and leg have less implosive forces do deal with so their ability to deal with that give more horses time to develop metabolic problems.

Truman

Steph Teeter wrote:

Jaye - as a farrier, what is your gut feeling on the causes of lameness in endurance horses? I read once that over 3/4 of the lamenesses in performance horses (not necessarily endurance) could be attributed to the feet. You have an exceptional eye for gait irregularities, and I know you have spent a lot of time watching horses move. Does this seem like a likely estimate? It sure seems that on courses like the one in Spain, that are flat and primarily hard packed trail or road - that the foot would be the first thing to feel the effect...

 

Steph