I recently traded my mustang mare who
was not really suited for distance work for an 8 year old arab mare who had
never been ridden. I liked this
idea because this was a horse who was more mature
(hopefully less silly behavior) and not messed up by someone else riding her
too hard. Well, hoping for less
silly behavior was foolish – poor thing has never had a job and so I’ve
really surprised her!But she is
smart and we are progressing well once I got smart enough to slow down and not
have the same expectations I would have of a mature horse that has had a job.
This horse is put together pretty well, but she is small. I like smaller horses, but I am concerned
about her legs and feet.She is
about 14.1 with a decent heart girth (bigger than some of my taller horses).Her cannons measure 7.25” and she
has 00 feet all around.I weigh
around 135 – is it foolish of me to expect her to carry me through
reasonably competitive 50’s or possibly an occasional 100? We live in the mountains and she gets
daily hill climbing on pasture – and she is nicely muscled even though
all I’ve done is a couple turns in the round pen on her back so far.
Also, I got to thinking about a comment Tom made about the horses
raced early possibly competing longer.Really doesn’t make sense to me for 2yo T-breds
and racing as I have a hard time thinking about them
even being ridden so young.But I
can see something to thinking about starting to stress legs at an “appropriate”
level when they are young so they are strong when older. So I wonder if I should be further
concerned about this horse.Has her
easy young life compromised the ability to remodel her bone with conditioning
now, or do I just need to be extra cautious and focus even more on LSD once we
get out on the trail?Or am I overthinking the whole thing?
I am hoping to ride her in various environments through the
fall, winter and early spring. I
would like to do an easy 25 in April and hop right into slow 50’s after
that. I really want her to learn to
take care of herself rather than
thinking a 25 is a walk in the park, but I also don’t want to overly
stress her legs and I’m really not sure what would be early signs that we’d
done too much – so I could slow down in time.
Any advice would be appreciated.And I would like to hear from people who
have competed on smaller boned horses, especially on 100’s.
