Ridecamp: Re: [RC] National IAHA Championship on TV

Which is fine and good Heidi...Just the rationalization I was making to my
friends...but it still comes down to what the horses were experiencing while
out on the ride.  Only horses with huge hearts can/will do  rides at those
speeds...were they enjoying themselves AT ALL the last 10 miles?  Can we say
it doesn't matter..they must have been fine because they were going "fast"
and they looked good the next day??If a horse is suffering at all..is that
OK?  I haven't ridden as many miles as you or seen as many horse at the end
of rides..but I know what a horse looks like when it is exhausted and
miserable.  And I saw it in the video and I've seen it  far too many times
at far too many rides.  Everyone is going to have a different definition of
what constitutes over riding a horse....in my oh so humble opinion...if a
horse appears to be exhausted and miserable...he is being over ridden.  Will
an exhausted and miserable horse still move along at 10 or 12 miles an hour?
The ones with the big hearts will until they drop dead only because we ask
them to. Does that mean it is OK to keep asking..just because they will????
I also know what a horse looks and feels like who is truly enjoying himself
and has energy to spare at the end of a ride. Again, to each his own...This
is one of those topics that everyone sees in different light...A badly
overridden horse to one person...is just a kind of tired horse to
another....So be it.

----- Original Message -----
From: Heidi Smith <heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Sandy Bolinger <bolinger@xxxxxxxxxx>; <jlong@xxxxxxxx>;
<SandyDSA@xxxxxxx>
Cc: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2002 9:22 PM
Subject: Re: [RC] National IAHA Championship on TV


>
> > When I first heard that the Ft Howes ride was done in under nine
hours...I
> > was simply amazed...not appalled by any means.  I just assumed that
these
> > were riders and horses who could go that fast for that distance...until
I
> > saw the video...and saw the horses and riders in action during part of
the
> > last ten miles and at the finish. I guess everyone has a different
> > definition of "over ridden."  To me if the horse looks exhausted and
> > miserable, the horse was over ridden.  Your horse obviously wasn't over
> > ridden if he still had that much in him the last miles and into the
> > finish...
>
> Judging from the times on the last leg, the horses couldn't have been
> dragging much!  That said, as I already mentioned, some looked tired at
the
> finish, but not out of the ordinary.  And while my personal pick among the
> Top Ten if I had to choose a horse to escape from a Sioux attack in the
> night would have been the 5th (I think he was 5th) place horse, Red in
first
> place would have done nicely, too.  He was free-moving and willing at his
> trot-outs, both for his completion and again for the BC judging.  As an
> endurance rider, I would have been happy to have had anyone in the world
> watching his post-ride vetting.
>
> Heidi
>
>
>


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