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RE: [RC] re: any horse can do 25 milers - David LeBlancChristina said: What I am trying to say is that you could not just take any old horse that we often see going down the trail for the Sunday ride complete one, not without specifically conditiong for 25 miles ahead of time. I think even if they did finish, they would have metabolic issues or lameness issues. Hmmm - seems I forgot one of the perennial hot button LD topics from my previous post 8-) Linda Flemmer said: I have to differ with your view - the rider's attitude really translates to the horse. The horse is typically capable of MUCH more than the rider. :-) ... Major finished the 25 with "spunk & go" to spare. No lameness issues, no metabolic issues other losing a few points for pulse. (As a black QH, he simply didn't recover as fast as the Arabs - ever. It was his baseline recovery.) After 5 years of virtually no riding or conditioning - just turn out on open pasture, he easily completed 25 miles at a good clip. That's as close to pulling a horse out of the field as you can get. While I wouldn't recommend it as a usual practice, it is NOT beyond the capacity of the horse. Mike & Major are not an isolated case, either... Well sure, but just because you did it and got away with it doesn't mean that it's a smart thing overall, or a smart thing for a rider with less experience. I've managed to do a fair number of things without having problems that in retrospect I wouldn't recommend. Again, the riding ability of the rider, the rider's attitude, and the atmosphere around the horse all contributes to the horse's willingness to compete for 25 miles. Sure, I'll buy that. I still think that if we all tried to run 10 different pasture potatoes through 10 LD rides, that we'd likely have our completion rates suffer as a result, and might have some problems with the horses. Now those riders who have some experience would probably do better than the newer riders. The same techniques that get me through the last 25 miles of a tough 75, or what gets me through the 3rd day of a multiday on a tired horse, will help me get a horse that's out of shape through a 25, or maybe even a 50. That's why I think the more experienced riders will say things like "any horse can do 25", though it's smart to qualify that with "reasonably fit, sound, and sane" - and it depends on the ride. I've seen horses that couldn't do 10-15 miles without ending up with colic or thumps. We get a lot of people up here in the NW who take out of shape horses on simple trail rides in our fairly steep mountains, and end up needing to call a vet (or worse, not calling the vet when needed). I don't care who's riding the animal. Or here's a nightmare scenario - take a pasture potato with issues, and the horse runs away with you. That's a great way to end up spending the afternoon with the treatment vet. So for example, I got a late start this year. Life interfered, had a job change, it rained a lot (even for us), and ended up out of the country at the early part of the season. My horse had 1695 endurance miles at the start of the season, it's his 8th year of competition, and I skipped 2-3 rides until I felt like he was ready. I _could_ have gotten through an LD, but I really didn't think it was the smart thing, or the best way for me to take care of my horse. So while there may be a lot of us who know enough to manage an out of shape horse through a ride, Christina's really got the right idea. This is especially true if you don't have a zillion miles of completions. I'm not going to bet against Cindy doing that if she wanted to, but she's got 8000+ miles, and I'd bet that even Cindy would end up with some pulls at the 1/2 way point because the horse was 'ADR' (ain't doing right). Maybe it _can_ be done, but that's a different thing than _should_ be done. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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