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RE: [RC] Fast rides~Decade Plus Horses~ - David LeBlanc

Christina Hykw said:

All this chatting about fast times had me wondering, do the horses that
are being raced last a long time in their career.

Typically not, though there are exceptions. Joe Long's horse Kahlil went
pretty fast, and had quite a lot of miles (11,525 - 7th highest lifetime
total). It's also true that the younger you race a horse, the less likely
the horse is to last in the sport.

My biggest concern is that he & I do this sport *together*, and a long
time.  

I understand. I'm very lucky to own an extremely well behaved and wonderful
horse. After being spoiled by Laser, I'll have a hard time finding another
that will measure up. I'd like him to last a long time in the sport. He's
currently 13, and we just hit 2000 miles. I'm hoping to get to 3000 miles
with him, and I think we can if we keep going like we are. If you check out
my record, you'll see that I rarely go fast on him, and when I do, I'm
careful about it - we do that when he feels like it, I agree, and the
footing is good. If we can still do 50's together when he's 20, we'll have
done well.

I have been trying to get a grasp of a good average time to aim for....to
keep in mind while training~ while all the LD/50 chat has lended over some
ideas on what is average & what is too speedy, I would love to learn about
what type of riding lends itself to longevity~

Then watch what the riders do who have horses that last a long time. I'm
happy to count among my friends Mary Forrester, who is currently 32nd in
lifetime miles in AERC history, and she owns 2 5000+ mile horses (one of
which is still going strong at over 6000 miles) - there's only been 165
horses ever go that many miles in the history of the sport, and to have had
2 of them is a good trick. I like to ride with Mary, not just because she's
good company, but because she's a great person to watch and learn from. Mary
doesn't start horses too young, builds them up slowly and methodically, sets
an even pace through the ride and holds it. She's also really careful about
footing, and walks if it looks bad.

Something I like to do is to check out people's records. Look around and
figure out who rides in your area that gets a lot of miles on their horses,
rides the same horse for years at a time, and see if you can ride with them
and learn from them.

One thing I have to stress is that there is no good average time. It depends
on the terrain, the weather, and how the horse feels that _day_. My horse
gets warmed up about 5 miles out, and _then_ we decide how fast to go. I've
done everything from walking across the start line, last person to leave
camp, and finishing 10th to last week I got the tail-end award. It was a
hard ride, lots of rocks, lots of elevation change, and we'd done an
incredibly tough ride 2 weeks prior, and I don't think he was completely
rested up. So we adjusted, took it easy, and got a completion. What you do
want to try and shoot for is consistency. Do the whole ride at the same
pace. Easier said than done, but the really good riders will do that. One
day I might be that good.

Good luck! Just get out and do it.




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Replies
[RC] Fast rides~Decade Plus Horses~, Mrs Christina Hykw