[RC] Philosophy and goals in distance riding ! Long! - Dfarnham09
Hello Everyone,
Firstly, I'd like to thank Susan from Louisville for
presenting different side of my nature than what was depicted by my
responses to what I perceived as rudeness and condescension (rightly or
wrongly) directed towards efforts by a group of folks just trying to have a good
time with the sport of endurance and their horses. Regardless, ASAV got
some excellent suggestions for and more appropriate (I understand now that I
have been "enlightened") names for the ride.
Now let's get on to some philosophy concerning equine performance sports.
Renee' and I both love performance sports and enjoy a deep personal
relationship with our equine athletes in general, and we both specifically love
racing...be it long or short. When Renee' (an excellent , track
exercise rider) was first bitten by the endurance bug, I tried for a very
long time to talk her out of the sport because I thought it was entirely too
dangerous for the horses. I would have been very pleased for her to redirect all
of her equestrian efforts back into eventing, dressage and jumping. Finally
realizing that she loved the long distance racing and wasn't going to change her
mind about the sport, I began studying everything I could get my hands on
about the sport in an effort to see if one could participate competitively in
this sport safely. Thank you Tom Ivers for invaluable information concerning
metabolics...IME, you were right on the money. It took us three years of
training/conditioning, observing, learning, and reflecting with
Gallant Rose before the 2005 season...when I felt that the mare could do the
distance and speed with no ill effects. I have truly learned a lot about
how durable and fast a welltrained, hotblooded horse can become when
stamina and speed are increased a drop at a time over an appropriately,
long period of time...it's truly amazing. I think I am a better horseman
having been forced into this endurance experience.
Now on to Gallant Rose ! She's a thirteen year old anglo-arab mare who is
three quarters Tb and one quarter arab. I initially got her as a potential event
horse for our son, and because she had one of the best overreaches (at least a
foot and a half) at the walk. Anyway, our son went off to college ( I'm
sure you all know how that story goes); so, Renee' appropriated Rosie. After
looking at Rosie's training chart, in 2005, she did 1,250 miles composed of
1,100 training/conditioning miles and 150 competitive, racing miles (AERC
recorded) completed...not to mention 2 days a week of dressage (30
minutes per session) to enhance musculo-skeletal health and a little bit of
jumping thrown in to keep it interesting for her. So you can see that although
2005 was Rosie and Renee's first seriously competitive year, it took quite a
while and a lot of work to get there. You can also see that we are
interested strictly in distance racing and not recorded, mileage
accumulation...the other noble goal in endurance riding, but not our's. When
Rosie gets too old to be competitive, she will be retired to other pursuits. She
is in fact an impressive dressage horse. Just like in TB racing (usually because
they simply get too big to be competiive at TB speeds), they are retired and go
on to other careers...hunter/jumper, eventing, etc. I think she ought to be
competitive for another three or four more years before she starts slowing
down...if this sport is like eventing. As you can see racing folks
have a completely different mindset than folks who are in to recorded, mileage
accumulation. Neither is better or worse than the other...just different. Now I
will say that most of the rest of the world is in to the racing aspect. Speaking
of the rest of the world, I heard that the horse the horse that won the 2004
President's Cup in the UAE came back and was second and won the newly instituted
BC award in 2005. Does anyone know if that is correct?
As you can see, if we pull up at an endurance race, we sincerely believe
that the horse is prepared to be competitive, and he/she has completed the
required distance and speed successfully in training previous to the race. I
personally don't believe that it's fair to ask a horse to do anything in a
competitive environment that he/she hasn't accomplished safely in practice.
There you have it...philosophically speaking. We are not into disposable
horses. Once a horse comes our barn it stays...that's why I have to be very
careful about what comes here. We get very attached.
