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Tamara, I can only speak for myself and my
horse, but I compete in dressage and eventing (dressage and jumping) with my
horse as well as competitive trail and endurance.
I believe (and it has proven true for MY horse)
that dressage improves the endurance horses balance, agility, behavoir,
endurance, and mind.
Jumping teaches him to look where his feet are
going, especially cross country, where he not only has to go fast (to beat the
clock) but jump as well over very spooky thing.
However I must say jump consertivly. My
horse and I were sponsered to go to an event, and were training for
it. On the course we came to a very scarey jump and instead of
refusing it King over jumped it and fractured a splint bone. He was
not ready for that level (the over jump not the level we were training at) and
spent the rest of the summer laid up (after surgery to remove it) I
am just now beginning to ride him again and have decided that I would not take
the chance again in eventing.
Cavellitti will do the same for a horse with out
the risk of the high jumps. I just got eager to see what he could do
and how high he could jump, and he loved it.
Dressage is wonderful for an arabs mind. King
REALLY loves the mental challange of dressage, he pays attention and we are
working on second level. He loves the attention he gets at shows when he
is the only arab amonst all the warmbloods and thorobreds.
Long distance has improved his dressage as the
forwardness needed in dressage sometimes isn't given by horses who only work in
the ring.
Dressage has improved his long distance as he has
the strength and endurance to keep on keeping on like the little energizer
bunny.
I MUST say however that you risk that "jack of all
trades master of none" thing. King and I don't go very
fast in endurance, we just have fun. The only way WE
would ever win an endurance ride is if everyone else got lost ahead of
us. We have been in the top ten at a couple of 100s though so
that is good. He is much better at the 100s because it
takes a long time to get there and if we just keep the same pace we seem to
pass alot of people that started out very fast and had to slow
down. In 50s we just aren't fast enough to place in the top
ten. So maybe if I try a longer ride someday does that mean we may
win???? :) :) That would be something i
think.
Anyway we just have fun at everything we
do. I don't get to very many rides (cost to much) but they sure are
fun when we do. I can make it to more dressage shows (classes are only $15
to $30 per class) and we have a lot of local ones, so by doing that we have fun
all the way around.
My husband and I take the horses and the dog and
camp out as well, just for fun. (since the kids are all grown up
)
Anyway I have rambled on long
enough Hope this helps and
have FUN with your
horse
Vicki
So yes I believe that you are not limmited to long
distance OR other disiplines.
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