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Re: [RC] [RC] NSH in endurance/CTR - Deanna German

I looked at really nice half Arab/National Show Horse today.? She is 5, has
good conformation, good brain and is SWEET to boot. ?I have some questions
about NSH in endurance/CTR.? First, of the 4 NSH on my street 3 have lameness
issues.? Two have severe lameness due to conformation flaws (crooked legs) and
the other was injured as a show horse.? All of these horses have great minds
and good work ethics.?


My advice is to REALLY pick apart the conformation. With the Arab/ASB cross
or pure NSH, you can get the best of both breeds or the worst and everything
in between. In particular, look out for long backs disproportionate to the
rest of the horse. Also look closely at the legs.



I think (incorrectly?) there are very few NHS in endurance. Is that true??


There are a few here and there. Some Arab/ASB crosses are not registerable
as NSH's for whatever reason and show up in results as 1/2 Arab.



If it is true is it due to lameness as listed above??


It's hard to determine what might have caused the horses up the road to go
lame, too many variables, so don't get hung up on that. Look at the horse in
front of you.

I'll tell you what my mare got from the ASB that I really love: she has a
wonderful, long-strided easily 5 mph power walk and a hellaciously big "road
trot" that just eats up the ground, a result of the way she's built. The
only other horse I know that can keep up with her walk without jogging or
her power trot without cantering is a NSH, TWH or ASB. Her canter is a
sweet, rolling canter. Ironically, it's not all that fast nor big, but I
don't really care about that. My mare is also very responsive to cues,
although I don't know if that's a trained thing or an innate ability.

What my mare got from the ASB (and she's only 1/8 ASB) that I'm not so fond
of is her terminal blondeness. She can be quite a ditz and it pops up at the
most inappropriate moments, sometimes for 50 miles. She IS very sweet,
however, not a mean bone in her body. And I've been told that she's a pretty
thing. She's very willowy in appearance.

My mare also has a longish back and a high head, and I have to work HARD at
it to build any semblance of a topline since her natural way of travelling
is hollow-backed. I'd say I have to work at it at least 3 or 4 times harder
than my buddies who have solid little square chunky Arabs. And she still
doesn't approach the muscling they have. OTOH, without the muscling she's a
very efficient cooler. I have never done any aerobic training (I don't use
an onboard HRM) other than to just go down trail and vary my gaits, and
occasionally trot up a few hills and she's never failed to easily meet pulse
criteria no matter how fast I go (even a 2 1/2 hour 25) and we also do
fairly well at CTR. I figure it's all the spooking during conditioning --
spook aerobics.

I have sworn off any future horses that have any ASB in them (I'm going back
to purebred Arabs), but that doesn't mean you should do the same. There's a
breed for everyone and maybe the NSH is right for you.

Good luck.

Deanna 


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