 |
[RC] Weight--Long - Bruce WearyHeidi--I'm not saying that weight is the overall determinant of a horse's outcome or performance. All other details must be attended to as well. Feed management, equitation, pacing, shoeing, etc.,. There is a constant with weight, however. It always requires more energy to move that heavier weight. Horses are not alchemists. Kat will remember from her high school physics class that neither energy nor mass are either created or destroyed. And Truman noted that the heavy weight horse will produce more body heat that must be dissipated as a result of the extra load. This puts an additional energy demand on the horse that is related to the extra weight, that a lighter weight rider advantageously needn't overcome. These energy demands are constants on the endurance horse that can be overcome with other strategies. But they must be overcome. If significant extra weight isn't being carried, that's that many fewer factors that the horse and rider must overcome, thus an advantage is held. Chris Knoch overcame his weight disadvantage by training hard, and running almost a third of the distance of the Tevis trail on foot. Kudos to him. It did, however, significantly reduce the amount of miles and time the horse had to carry his weight. Why did he need that strategy to win? Is it because he simply enjoys running up and down 2,000 foot canyons in 110 degree heat when he has a perfectly good horse right next to him? Another example of the extra work and preparation a heavyweight rider must go to to not only level the playing field, but to tilt it in his favor. It can be done, and is done from time to time. But again, there is more expected of the heavyweight to produce the same result as a lighter rider--not only in terms of performance on ride day, but in how the horse looks the day after, and in long term soundness. These are the issues that aren't readily apparent to most of us because rarely do people announce the health/soundness problems of their horse the week after they did particularly well at a ride. MMS rides as a middleweight. One can always find anecdotal examples to show that something can be done. Anecdotal examples don't prove or explain a trend, though. And, Kat, endurance riding isn't a game of chance, like playing the lotto or roulette. It only takes one heavyweight to beat the field. Having fewer heavyweights in a field isn't the prime factor to explain their fewer successes in performing against all other lighter riders. Heidi, you mentioned that a rider can gain an advantage by having a heavier rider condition it, and then having the lighter rider compete on it. How very right you are. Now I know you know your physiology, as well. The law of Demand and Supply says that tissues adapt in accordance with the stresses put on them. Marathon runners look like marathon runners. Weight lifters look like weight lifters. The body doesn't get confused about that. And a horse that carries more weight, must recruit more muscle fibers that must then produce more strength of contraction to move that weight. The result is a conditioning response in a horse that gets stronger because he has carried more weight. Again, I say that the horse carrying more weight works harder. If he is not working harder, why does Father Nature endow him with greater physical attributes with the more weight he carries, the greater distances he travels, the more sprints he does, the higher jumps he goes over, etc.,? And as far as the 1/20th ratio figure you gave, Heidi, regarding the difference in effect on aerobic vs anaerobic work, something has got to be missing there. Most of us have carried a 40 lb pail of water from a water tank to our trailer for a hundred yards or more at a fast walk. Pretty anaerobic when you arrive, right? Try carrying it even one mile at a stroll and without switching hands. It should only feel like four pounds, right? You might counter by saying carrying it even at a stroll would still keep you anaerobic. There's that physiological effect of significant weight again. Just sittin' there lickin' it's chops. Dr Q, who may lift a few 12 ouncers tonight. Aerobically, of course. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|